- Tue Sep 25, 2012 4:43 pm
#259731
Yet more risible stuff from Heath. They aren't allowing comments on this article for some reason - perhaps because it's a crock of shite and even Telegraph readers would baulk at it.
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/ ... icher.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Isn't this just evidence of the yawning chasm between rich and poor in this country? If we had a more egalitarian distribution of wealth, the lower orders could afford to pay more income tax (which actually makes up less than a third of Treasury revenue anyway). The rich don't seem to want that though, which renders this sort of bellyaching pointless. And as for this, well...One of the most pernicious myths in the current political debate is that the rich don’t pay much tax.
This is nonsense, as even a cursory analysis of the official statistics reveals. The top 1pc, who earn £156,000 or above, will pay a whopping 24.2pc of all income tax this year, a much higher contribution than their 10.8pc share of all income. The top 10pc of earners – those on at least £50,500 – will pay 55.3pc of all income tax, also far more than their income share.
But the war on wealth, and regulatory overreaction towards finance, is also having an effect. Capital gains tax is too high. Luxury homes transactions are falling because of higher stamp duty. Britain is now a high tax economy; this is distorting work and investment decisions, gradually shifting talent and capital overseas. The overwhelming majority of high earners are already contributing disproportionately to the exchequer; tightening the screws further will be disastrously counter-productive.

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.