Labour lunacy

[Gob]

Labour would reintroduce the 50p top rate of income tax for those earning over £150,000, if it returns to power, the shadow chancellor has said.

Ed Balls said a government analysis which showed it did not raise much was skewed by ministers' assumptions.

The previous Labour government created a new 50% tax band in 2010 for anyone with income of more than £150,000, but the coalition cut it to 45% last April.

Conservatives said an increase would put "the economic recovery at risk".
Continue reading the main story

And some business leaders echoed that warning.

Speaking to the Fabian Society in central London, Mr Balls said: "When the deficit is still high, it cannot be right for David Cameron and George Osborne to have chosen to give the richest people in the country a huge tax cut."

He said Labour wanted to finish the job of getting the deficit down by "reversing this unfair tax cut for the richest 1% of people in the country".

Do they really think that in this day and age this wil do anything? Anything other than drive some wealthy people out of the country? A return to the politics of the 70s.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Labour would reintroduce the 50p top rate of income tax for those earning over £150,000, if it returns to power

Half a quid? Well they should at least chip in 12s 6d

[Gob]

These were the days, eh Meade?

[Lord Jim]

A return to the politics of the 70s.

That's exactly what it sounds like...

Perhaps they could also re-adopt the unilateral nuclear disarmament platform that went over so well with the voters....

[rubato]

In Calif. the combined income tax brackets (state and federal together) are about 42.5-43.3%. Close to your 45% but we don't have the very high VAT on top of it.

"Tax refugeeism" is not likely to ever be a significant phenomenon.

yrs,
rubato

[MajGenl.Meade]

No, Gob. I was already living in the US of A by then and decimilisation was already a done deal. But even though that's a big pile of garbage, there's an even larger pile being touted in the background!

[dgs49]

Seems like the socialists over there also enjoy fostering envy and punishing success, just like they do in the States.

I would like to see one politician have the balls to suggest a hard-dollar (pound/Euro/Drachma) ceiling on income taxes; once you've paid this much, you've paid enough. Regardless of what number were chosen, the political fighting would be fun to watch.

As long as you keep talking in percentages and ignore the amounts, it is possible to, for example, complain that a secretary pays "more than" her boss - when the fact is that the boss actually pays many times what the secretary pays.

[rubato]

Laffer and the Yeti:

http://www.pieria.co.uk/articles/laffer_and_the_yeti

"... So it is with the Laffer curve. It seems obvious that 100% taxation would induce people to stop working, and indeed very high marginal tax rates due to benefit withdrawal do discourage the poor from working. But arguments from the IEA and others that a 5p increase in the top rate of tax would result in mass flight of talent, resulting in economic disaster, are unfounded. We have no idea what the Laffer curve looks like, let alone where the peak is. Opinions as to the “optimal” rate of tax on the very rich differ wildly, from 40% (IEA) to over 80% (Piketty and Saez). The IMF’s recent research suggests that there is scope for tax rises for the very rich in most countries and especially in developed Western countries, although they don’t go as far as Piketty & Saez. But until someone proves conclusively that at some rate of tax, revenue generation ALWAYS reverses irrespective of other effects, the Laffer peak will remain mythical.

Since no-one has managed to prove the existence of a “tipping point” after which higher taxes become counterproductive, let alone where that tipping point might be, the arguments for and against higher taxation of the rich tend to be fought on moral grounds. And the fight is bitter. ... "

More at the link.

yrs,
rubato

[oldr_n_wsr]

Damnit. Had a post lost to the "log out/time out" monster.
Maybe later.

[Econoline]

As long as you keep talking in percentages and ignore the amounts, it is possible to, for example, complain that a secretary pays "more than" her boss - when the fact is that the boss actually pays many times what the secretary pays.

On the other hand, if you're a glass-half-full rather than a glass-half-empty sort of guy you might notice that the boss's actual disposable income is many, many, many times what the secretary gets to live on. In fact the ratio between the boss's/secretary's disposable incomes is likely many times the ratio between their respective actual-dollar-amounts-of-taxes-paid.

I would like to see one politician have the balls to suggest a hard-dollar (pound/Euro/Drachma) ceiling on income taxes; once you've paid this much, you've paid enough.

And I would like to see one politician have the balls to suggest an enormous but finite hard-dollar (pound/Euro/Drachma) ceiling on income; once you've been paid this much, you've been paid enough (and the rest is taxed at 100%).

Regardless of what number were chosen, the political fighting would be fun to watch.

Ditto, with my suggestion, too.

[Sue U]

And I would like to see one politician have the balls to suggest an enormous but finite hard-dollar (pound/Euro/Drachma) ceiling on income; once you've been paid this much, you've been paid enough (and the rest is taxed at 100%).

That would be nice, but I'd settle for a 100% estate tax instead.

[oldr_n_wsr]

That would be nice, but I'd settle for a 100% estate tax instead.

Are you kidding?

What is your reasoning for that?

[Joe Guy]

I'd like to know too.

And explain 100% estate tax.

[Sue U]

I mean it quite literally; all amounts in a decedent's estate are forfeited. What use does the decedent have for it?

And why wouldn't you tax estates at 100%? Why should some heir get a windfall fortune? What has he done to deserve it? If you truly believed in a "merit society" rather than one of unearned privilege, you would insist on the most confiscatory estate tax possible.

[oldr_n_wsr]

So I work my butt off and I can't leave what I have not spent to my kids? Why should the government take my house and property and money? They did nothing to earn that. At least I like my kids which is more than I can say about my government.
I earned it, I should be able to do with it what I please.

[Joe Guy]

I don't want to live in SueUSA.

I want to leave my estate to whomever I please. I earned it and it should be my right to give it away. My death shouldn't disqualify me from my will being carried out.

But I wouldn't want to prevent anyone from giving all they have to the government if that's what they want to do.

[Long Run]

Oh, she just threw her firecracker into the room and walked away. We have a fairly reasonable compromise between the "I earned it, paid taxes on it and saved it, so I should be able to give it to who I damn well please" and the "the deceased doesn't need it and why should his/her kids get such a windfall" philosophies. Federal estate tax is not imposed on first $5.3 million, and the top rate on taxable amounts is 40%. Most people seem okay with this compromise, though it does not satisfy either of the ideological purists.

[oldr_n_wsr]

Federal estate tax is not imposed on first $5.3 million, and the top rate on taxable amounts is 40%

Works for me. Unless of course I happen to somehow accumulate a more than $5.3 million estate, then I want it changed.

[Lord Jim]

It's not the first time Comrade Sue has tossed out that Bolshie proposal...

But while it is of course an absurd idea on so many levels from both a moral and economics point of view, (not to mention completely unworkable from a practical stand point) I don't get worked up about it...

Pretty much for the same reason I don't get worked up when somebody suggests repealing the 2nd Amendment...

I find personally that my plate is pretty full getting worked up over outrageous things that have actually happened, or could conceivably happen, such that I don't really have any apoplectic response time left for things that have as much chance of happening as my winning America's Got Talent with my chainsaw juggling while playing a bassoon act....

[oldr_n_wsr]

You play the bassoon? I play the bassoon. Wanna try a duo??
j/k I don't play the bassoon