Income tax - is it fair?

Question

Some parties are talking about wanting to raise the level of income tax to 50% for higher earners - why is this fair?

Surely penalising people for earning more money will discourage them from wanting to work harder and progress?

Wouldn't tax be better charged on a person's spending rather than their income? e.g. if you wanted (and could afford) a gas guzzling, polluting Jaguar over say an environmentally-friendly Toyota electric car then fine, but you would pay more tax on the Jag.

Why should somebody pay more tax because they happen to work harder and longer and therefore earn more than some lazy lay-about who can't be bothered?

The whole system is wrong.

What do you think?

Answer 1

I think it is the conservatives talking about this. Their suggestion (as I remember it from BBC News) was that low earners would pay no tax, and high earners would pay 50% tax. What the spokesman said was "£5000 is a lot more money to someone earning £15000 than £50000, so therefore the high earners should pay more tax than low earners". Personally I completely agree with what I've put in quote marks. But if I put into action what I have in quote marks, I would say "Let's not have everyone pay £5000 a year. Let's have them pay the same percentage across the board. Then if you only earn £15000, you pay £3000. If you earn £50000, you pay £10000." That makes sense to me. Saying someone earning £15000 pays 10% tax and someone earning £50000 pays 50% tax is stupid. That means that earning 3 times as much as somone, you pay 15 times as much tax. Ludicrous!

So to answer your question: Income tax is not currently fair. The Tories want to make it even more unfair. Which presents me with a problem because I want Labour out of 10 Downing Street!

Answer 2

I support a Fair Tax. Basically it is a tax on spending or a sales tax. It is a far more fair system because if you don't meet the minimum income requirements, you don't pay taxes. Info on this is at http://www.fairtax.org/

I just got my paycheck for this month. Taxes really took a bit out of what I made and that does not include any extra I pay in sales tax as well as property taxes. Property taxes are another thing that I think really sucks as well. I pay way more than I think I should for that and don't get my money's worth in services.

Plus think about how much money we spend to have all of the IRS employees on the payroll. With a fair tax it is collected like it is today, and the number of IRS employees go down big time.

Answer 3

Grow up all of you. Taxes pay for social infrastructure and social cohesion....otherwise we live in the jungle.People who are earning the bare necessity to live on and doing very necessary jobs like street cleaning should not be taxed at all. But people who are making a lot of money whether by choosing to work long hours, or living off unearned income or some other scam, should pay up in proportion to what they have been privileged to accumulate. We either want a civilised society or we want blade runner. Taxes on what we spend fall disproportionally on those who are on the lowest rung of the ladder...like single parents and those with diabilities of one sort or another. Is that what you really want.....Yo ho ho as Santa claus said.....

Answer 4

Why should anybody pay more tax than someone else?? People have worked hard to buy the cars that they want and taking more tax off these people for higher earnings and cars just sucks!!! (no i havent got a jag) If they put income tax up any more im going to spout out loads of kids and go on benefits!!!! Then they cant take 2 grand a month off me.................... so ner ner

Answer 5

I live in Canada, and our system is like this. The more you make, the greater percentage they take.

I don't think it's fair. I think that there should be a flat tax for everyone regardless of how much you make, otherwise you are dealing in socialism.

Taxation based on spending would be impossible. It is far easier to monitor income than expenditures - expenditures can be hidden as cash transactions, put into other people's names, and so on, it couldn't be enforced because it would require too much auditing of people's assets.

Answer 6

Progressive income tax is bull. I wouldnt have a problem with a flat income tax but penalizing the people who get out there and take risks and bust their butt is wrong. The easiest way to fix the problem would be to go to a flat sales tax.

Answer 7

The question is "do you think the govt. deserves 15,25, 35,50 percent of your income???sure we get some benefit from taxation but there is a lot of waste and special interest getting more and trying to get more than their share?In the Bible a tithe is only 10 per cent?? why cant the govt do what we do?? if you dont have money you dont spend money???pay as you go?dont indebt your future generations to a life of taxation?if you totaled all the taxes yu pay from property tax to income,sales and hidden taxes it would scare you to death!!we dont work for ourselves or our company we work for the US Govenrment!!!Isnt it June that you make enough to pay income tax???this will eventually cause the downfall of our country??

Answer 8

Couldn't agree more. Why not abolish income tax and replace it with an increase in VAT on everything we buy. That way, as you rightly say, we pay for what we buy. I'm sure the Chancellor could even wangle it so that he gets more money to spend on assylum seekers, do-gooders and the like.

Answer 9

Tax everyone as much as they can afford. People do not need to be sitting on huge hoards of cash, its morally wrong and its also stupid.

Who benifits if one man has a billion of pounds. Only him.

Split it between a million people and eveyone is happy.

This is the way forwards.

Embrace the left, it is the future.

Answer 10

Yes we all hate paying tax, with income tax we know how much we are paying (Too Much !)
But all the other taxes we have to pay ??, just about everything we buy we pay tax on it, just about everything that is sold has tax added to it ????
Self employed.
Class 4 national insurance ??, I phoned the tax office about this and was told basically it was another tax, 8% of our gross income.
What's that all about ?
Listen to taxman by the Beatles, just about sums it up !!!