TUC calls for rich tax
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has called for a new tax bracket for people earning more than £100,000 a year.
The facts:
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said pay inequality is worse than it was in Victorian times. Speaking ahead of the TUC's annual conference yesterday, he said extreme wealth was “socially divisive and morally objectionable”.
Barber is calling for new higher tax bands for salaries over £100,000 and £200,000. He says curbing tax reliefs available to the super-rich would earn the government £5bn in new income, which could go towards tax cuts for ordinary people.
The TUC published a study of Britain’s wealthiest people in every decade since 1850. It shows even fabulously wealthy Victorians lagged behind today’s oligarchs.
At £27.7bn, the fortune of steal magnate Lakshmi Mittal is said to be twice that of the equivalent sums enjoyed by the Victorian era’s richest people. The estate left by the Duke of Westminster at his death in 1899 totalled £14m or £10.6bn in today’s money.
The TUC kicked off its annual conference in Brighton today, with pay equality high on the agenda. Seven unions represented at the conference are calling for a major protest over the government’s pay policies for public sector workers.
They said:
Barber said: "The evidence assembled here is conclusive proof that the growth of the super-rich is not just socially divisive and morally objectionable, but deeply damaging for the rest of the economy.
"The super-rich have not created much in the way of extra wealth - they have mostly taken it from the rest of us. It's Robin Hood in reverse.
"Those suffering from the impact of the credit crunch should know that it was caused by the super-rich taking risks with other people's money, pocketing the profits and passing on the inevitable losses."
We say:
The TUC is blurring the lines between people’s personal wealth (ie money in the bank) and the value of their assets (the successful businesses that they run). Most of Lakshmi Mittal’s is tied up in his businesses, which employ people and pay wages.
Taxing super salaries reads like a good idea on paper, but we must be careful not to dissuade entrepreneurs from building valuable businesses because of the tax treatment they’ll face.
By News Desk on Sep 08,2008
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Keywords
TUC rich tax money entrepreneurs wealth Mittal
