Where are Britain's philanthropic rich?
Posted by Christie Malry on August 27, 2011 at 11:01 am
After Warren Buffett said that he thought he should be required to pay more tax, and 16 French billionaires called upon President Sarkozy to charge more tax on the super-rich (which he did), it was inevitable that UK lefties would eventually jump on this bandwagon.
If only Sir Ronald would instead rally the rich to pay all their taxes; with no avoidance he would raise far more than his bonds ever will. He might galvanise them to support wealth taxes earmarked for social programmes. He could shame the Philip Green and Lewis Hamilton tax avoiders. Here's what David Cameron said about rioters: "The root cause of this mindless selfishness is the same thing I have spoken about for years: it is a complete lack of responsibility in parts of our society. People allowed to feel that the world owes them something, that their rights outweigh their responsibilities and that their actions do not have consequences."
Just so, but Britain lacks a Buffett or a Bettencourt to bring the rich back into the responsible society, to reel in their soaring separation from the rest.
What a load of unrestrained Toynbee toss.
Mere days after Buffett said he wanted to pay more tax, what did he do? He sunk $5bn of his company's money in shares in Bank of America, making a tidy paper profit on day one. Why did he do this, when he could have put his money where his mouth is and written a cheque to the US Treasury instead?
And let's look at the terms of the Sarkozy 'soak the rich' deal:
The next day Prime Minister François Fillon proposed a new 3% levy on incomes that exceed €500,000 ($722,400).
The French deal is also temporary, and will expire once the French budget deficit is reduced to 3% or less. Compare that to the terms of the UK's 'soak the rich' deal, which is already in place, under which:
- there is a 10% levy on incomes that exceed £150,000 (€170,000) - about 1/3 of what the French consider "super rich".
- the UK levy is 10% - over 3 times higher than what the French consider an appropriate contribution for the super rich.
- the UK package was accompanied by other tax increases for their "super rich", including a phased removal of the personal allowance for incomes over £100,000.
- the UK levy is also indefinite. While there are debates on both sides about whether it should continue, it has no sunset clause.
So while Toynbee relaxes in her foreign villa and bashes out her article, she completely ignores the fact that the UK has already asked many more high earners to pay much more tax, and intends to do so indefinitely. It's a total lie to say that the UK's rich aren't contributing. It's not just the super rich, we've already asked many many more people to contribute far more tax than Warren Buffett or Liliane Bettencourt would ever be prepared to contemplate.
