There is an obvious way to tackle this inequality. It is called an investment income surcharge. We had one in the UK for more than 20 years, but Margaret Thatcher got rid of it. It is time that we had one again, creating an additional 15% tax charge on income from wealth of more than £10,000 a year. It is absurd that those who live off unearned income in the UK pay less tax than those who have to go out to work to earn the same money.
Man also wants to increase tax on investing in the UK economy.
At least Charles Pooter was consistent about the Bulgarians.
Presumably the biggest cohort living off so-called “unearned income” is pensioners, right? Can’t think why the government doesn’t want to upset them.
Here we go again, picking a number that sounds unthreatening to the general public, 10k a year, but with no intention of indexing that. So everyone gets caught in the net in ten years time.
Andrew, yep, pensioners would not be happy.
What else can pensioners live off? Pensions are not “earned income”.
Oh yes, the capital that they have saved up – but that isn’t going to last very long if the income is taxed at punitive rates.
John,
I think the intention is we live off meagre handouts from the Corajus State or more likely, like Boxer, we work until we drop to provide them with the taxes they crave.
Nothing less than 100% of your income from any source will satisfy the great potato.
It’s time to get rid of this pernicious lie called “unearned income”. Unless you are taking welfare or charity, there is no unearned income. Any other income from dividends, interest or capital gains was earned to supply the capital in the first place. Even inheritance is earned by decedent.
I worked very hard to amass enough to invest to assure a stream of income to support myself and my family. To have some potato come along and tell me that I’m getting that money for free is frankly insulting.
Revealed preference again. Murphy’s pension is less than £10k. Perhaps investing in 1% bonds wasn’t such a good idea.
MG @ 7.30 + 1.
Andrew M @ 12.10: “Presumably the biggest cohort living off so-called “unearned income” is pensioners, right?”
Many people have never contributed to a pension, including the state version. Those on benefits or ‘chain migrators’ who came here late in their life. That is ‘unearned income’ and to my mind the biggest problem with the welfare state – those who contributed nothing get the same (or better) benefits than those who paid in all their working life.
I don’t know your age Andrew, but the rest of us worked, paid our taxes plus had a percentage of our wages taken from us (and more if you so chose) to be put into a retirement pension.
My money was invested for nearly 40 years and is most definitely not ‘unearned’…..