12 July 2007

Hats Off To The Lib Dems

As I have previously blogged, extortionately high marginal tax rates that low earning Brits suffer is a disgrace. Therefore, I am delighted to see that the Liberal Democrats have weighed in with a surprisingly bold and eye-catching proposal that does begin to address this important political issue.

Cynics may argue that this cut will be chewed up by their local income tax and of course we wait to see detailed analysis of their sums, but I am glad to see one of our major parties setting a tax-cutting agenda. In their statement, Ming Campbell said;

“The unacceptable reality is that in Britain today the poorest pay a higher proportion of their income in tax than the super-rich."

It is indeed unacceptable. Can Mr Osborne and his newly revitalised Treasury team please get a grip and start to give us a clue what they are going to do to tackle this issue?

5 comments:

Mark Wadsworth said...

On a first glance, that looks pretty good, but what they overlook is that the highest marginal rates are paid by lower earners on WTC, HB and CTB withdrawal (up to 95% total marginal rate).

This is easily fixed by ending means testing, aka Citizen's Income, which is also perfectly affordable if you look at the numbers (I am waiting for Citizen's Income Trust to put their new booklet on-line, yours truly ground the numbers for this).

And ALTER are still doing battle over the "should council tax be replaced with LVT or with Local Income Tax" and apparently we shouldn't give up hope yet!

But I'm unlikely to vote for them 'cause they are totally pro-EU integration. Ah well.

Mark Wadsworth said...

Oops, I have now followed your first link and you have already made my first point. Respect!

Man in a Shed said...

Its a sign of the utter desperation of the Lib Dems at the moment. They are going down with all hands and the risk of actually having to implement what the spout on about is even lower than normal.

Their proposals won't work because those who are highly paid have good accountants and can leave the country. Its an attempt to bribe the voters with their own money ( Ming mustn't sit so close to Gordon on the flight up to Edinburgh - it gives him bad ideas ).

The only thing that is worth hearing is how government will spend less money - then lower taxes will follow.

Anonymous said...

I agree that the most important point is to talk about how to cut expenditure. Tax cuts are a natural consequence. On the other hand, I do think that it is ridiculous that some people are both paying payroll taxes and in receipt of poverty benefits. The Lib Dems proposal does not solve this but it is a move in the right direction. Also, they might paint it as tax neutral but for the reasons you outline it will not be - so I welcome this proposed cut.

James Higham said...

First there's the post. then the visitations by the Norfolk Blogger. Are we about to see PragueLibDem?