Brits to raise income tax on wealthy

From the Financial Times:

"National insurance* contributions for both employees and employers will rise by 0.5 per cent. Those earning more than £100,000 will pay more income tax – with those on £150,000 facing a new higher tax rate of 45 per cent... ."

In American dollars, £150,000 is about $230,000, less than Barack Obama's $250,000 threshold for raising taxes on rich Americans (assuming he follows through on it.)

According to the British Institute for Public Policy Research, the package of new tax policies will result in "the most redistributive budget ... of the last thirty years", primarily benefiting the poor:

"By introducing a higher rate of tax, raising national insurance contributions, rebalancing and increasing personal tax allowances and enhancing child and pensioner benefits, the tax burden will be shifted away from those who can least afford to shoulder it."

A European social democracy at work. 

*(National insurance, or NIC, refers to national health, which the Brits, along with most of the rest of the civilized world, have.  And we don't.)

Comments

[Craig]

Social democracy? Whatever that means, in the case of Great Britain, it appears to be social democracy with an asterisk.

1. The increase in the marginal tax rate from 40 to 45 percent will affect only the richest 1% and, along with the 0.5% increase in the national insurance tax, will not take effect until April 2011.

2. What is more important -- or at least more immediate -- is not a tax increase, but a tax cut. Starting next Monday, the national sales tax will be cut from 17.5% to 15%. The idea, I hear, is to encourage the population to go out and buy .... stuff.

[mbt men boots]

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