Ask YOURSELF the logical question.
You become a comforatbly rich Formula 1 driver. You have a 'working life' of about 10 years when yoiu can earn BIG money.... aftre that, it has to be from your investments and or other busineses. Never again will you be able to earn as much.
Under YOUR sort of ideas, you'd want to tax such YOURSELF at .... what.....50%...60%....80%..... that's still not as high as it got to under the LAST Labour imbecile..... when it rose to NINETY NINE PERCENT....
Let's guess that you'd choose 60% for the TOP earners..... and you'd be one of those.
So.... from you (let's guess) �10 nillion per. annum you'd pay roughly �5 million tax..... unless you moved to Monaco.... where the tax level is ZERO....!
Now.... tell us that you WOULD pay �6 million per year (or actually SIXTY MILLION in the ten years just to stay) in the UK! Of the �100,000,000 you EVER expect to earn.... that you'd be DELIGHTED to pay �60,000,000 tax.!
Now let's imageine you created a racing business with tracks across Europe. You took risks and builod your business plaving you HOME in the hands of the bank while you started and worked 100 hours per week to build the business (that's standard for small businessmen!). You are now earning �200,000 per annum. Under YOUR scheme, you would take home less than EIGHTY thousand of that money..... Would you stay in the UK is THAT was how much you were being taxed? After all.... YOU did all the WORK and you are now giving that money to LAYABOUTS to get the dole.....
As you can see... the level of your income is NOT taht important to the logic. If you had the chance to leave a High Tax area to move into a LOW tax area..... would you EVER stay?
However, if the Tax T=Rate in the UK was low enough..... would you stay THEN?
So.... which is better: a High Tax rate where a large number of high earners CAN leave and pay NO uk tax.....or a lower tax rate where it does NOT pay them to leave.... thus bringing in 20% of their income to the treasury?
To be honest... this is NOT something about which you need to think! It's NOT an acedemic excersize: Dennis Healey and Harold Wilson DEMONSTRATED it in the 1970s (Healey's quote was: 'squeeze the rich until the pips squeak!)..... The top tax rate WAS 99% ......and MILLIONS of strong earners left the UK. And we are STILL paying for that exodus TODAY!
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We are talking about a CONCEPT here: Labour think that all earned money is THEIR money (hence the comment about NOT taxing a further 6 Billion being a LOSS to the 'economy')..... oh no it AIN'T..... That money BELONGS to the earners and they CHOOSE to pay the tax while it remains attarctive to REMAIN here. Make it unattractive to go.... and they will...... and so will your TAXES....... plus all the JOBS those guys created!
Ian
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