[wdmmg-discuss] BBC radio program about tax

Mon Sep 20 15:27:30 UTC 2010

Julian Todd <julian at publicwhip.org.uk> wrote:
> Now, higher earners should, quite rightly, pay a higher net percentage
> of tax, because they don't feel it.  [...]
> But higher earners retain PR consultants who perpetrate serious
> mischief with concepts such as
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_Freedom_Day -- arithmetically
> averaged across the whole of the population at 30%.
>
> Almost no one's net tax burden is anywhere near that.  But they don't
> hear any other number, so it works.

If you include VAT and other regressive taxes, the rich in fact pay
*lower* rates of tax than everyone else.  Also, the rich get most of
their money in the form of capital gains, which is taxed at much lower
rates than wages.

Treasury reveals tax burden is heaviest on poor
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/tax/article2461295.ece

theo