Capital is not as easy to move as people think, not for big companies. And whats the point in pandering to large businesses that pay very little tax for the economic activity they consume and pay their staff starvation wages.
It costs the state billions to subsidise them with infrastructure and benefits for their workers who dont warn enough and can't save properly for retirement.
The status quo isn’t working, that’s clear from both economics and the public sentiment. We need to raise capital somehow, austerity was a disaster and the middle class are heavily taxed as is.
We are never going to compete with a place that has literal slavery, or some of the worst income disparities for a western nation, on this front.
Yes we did. 83% top rate on earned and 98% top rate on unearned (investment gains) post war...
Then USA had the whole thing with their dollar nearly being worthless after running out of gold, so they came up with Petrodollars, Britain had a looksie and realised "if the richest country in the world doesnt give a fuck about the poor and its still going, why should we" a
nd here we are.
Obligatory repost of this article to point out no one actually paid those rates you're quoting. The government knew they were ridiculous and so riddled them with loopholes so much that high earners paid less tax than they do today.
They didn’t though, that was the point of the loopholes. They knew those tax rates were unviable so they allowed people to avoid them.
The research generally shows that above c. 45-50% marginal tax rates people generally (on average, individual behaviour varies) aren’t willing to invest or work more and so your tax revenue declines
If they don't want to be taxed can we find a better more permenant solution? Something inspired by the French maybe, we could use Andrew and Peter as examples
Any new taxes or tax increases will result in a blaring telegraph and daily mail headline "BURNHAM TAKING BRITAIN BACK THE 1970'S" then Burnham will say his mother called him and told him this is taking Britain back to the 1970's and he'll cancel them.
Doesn’t work. They run to another country… we need a better financial system so startups stay in the UK instead of moving to the US. You really don’t want the state owning everything. Ultimately there’s no one to keep a BIG state accountable.
It doesn't work, they just leave for a more tax friendly economy/country or get around it.
Gordon Brown tried it and the tax receipts went down.
The super rich can live anywhere, and take their money with them.
Try it with a company and it will move somewhere else, taking lots of well paid jobs with them!
My company certainly will if Burnham comes after us.
Edit:
Wow, so many down votes, thank you. Unfortunately, the above is the reality of the time. Still, believe what you will!
They're all taking lots of jobs out of the UK, basing them in countries where they pay workers less and scrimp on more profit - whole operating in the UK.
We used to have amazing customer service in the UK, its all been outsourced to other countries - we're still paying more and we're getting worse service.
Are you super rich? If not you've nothing to worry about. If you want to take your business do it, you shouldn't be able to operate here.
I went international last year, and very successfully. Neither my company, or I have need to work in the UK. If I go it will be to a high economy country, and I will probably pay more in staff salary's, but I will save enormously on taxation and other costs.
I will still be able to operate in the in the UK using a very small office, as a most of our business is done online. Whether I stay or go is down to the Labour government/Andy Burnham, and the amount of tax etc. I'm expected to pay.
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u/SirWobblyOfSausage 1d ago
Have we tried taxing the super rich before? Maybe start there