Free Britannia

50p tax rate 'failing to boost revenues’
The amount of income tax paid fell sharply last month in the first formal indication that the new 50p higher rate is not raising the expected amount of revenue.

A Treasury source said the relatively poor revenues from self-assessment returns was partly down to highly-paid individuals arranging their affairs to avoid paying the 50p rate Photo: Abbie Trayler-Smith

The Treasury received £10.35 billion in income tax payments from those paying by self-assessment last month, a drop of £509 million compared with January 2011. Most other taxes produced higher revenues over the same period.

Senior sources said that the first official figures indicated that there had been “manoeuvring” by well-off Britons to avoid the new higher rate. The figures will add to pressure on the Coalition to drop the levy amid fears it is forcing entrepreneurs to relocate abroad.

The self-assessment returns from January, when most income tax is paid by the better-off, have been eagerly awaited by the Treasury and government ministers as they provide the first evidence of the success, or failure, of the 50p rate. It is the first year following the introduction of the 50p rate which had been expected to boost tax revenues from self-assessment by more than £1billion.

So does this mean the 50p rate is a failure?

By no means!

The purpose of this impost was never to raise money for the Treasury. We all knew it would not do that.

The intention was to make Nick Clegg and his cohorts feel better.

And Tone, of course!

If you want to reduce or get rid of something, tax it. Works for all sorts of thing, making "income" included.

Very true!

Why would anyone risk what they've already got, or work harder or longer and spend less time with their families or on the golf course or their sail boat or the ski slopes or whatever else floats their boat, when the State will take half of whatever they make extra (allthough not reimbersing them for 50% of any potential losses may make) and use it to pay for Somalian refugees and their 18 kids to live rent free in Hamstead mansions, and diversity facilitatiing welfare child confiscation officers to inflict more misery on the nations dimwits?

Why?