英國提高個稅稅率 1/4稅收來自1%富人
A quarter of all of Britain's income tax revenues this year will be paid by just one per cent of earners, according to official data。
The figure is in sharp contrast to 1978, an era associated with supertaxes, when the top one per cent paid 11 per cent of all the tax revenues。
Experts suggested the projections, published by HM Revenue and Customs, was evidence of how the rich had got richer over the last three decades, while the tax burden on them had increased substantially in recent years。
The new top rate of 50p income tax rate came into force in April 2010, landing a small number of people with the highest rate of income tax since 1988.
It is not yet fully clear how much money this top rate of tax, introduced by the former Labour government, will raise. However, last week the HMRC published its forecasts for all income tax revenues for the current tax year. It suggested that 275,000 individual, those that will pay the 50p rate, will pay £41.4 billion in tax – 25.7 per cent of the country's total income tax bill。
In total there is expected to be 30.6 million taxpayers this tax year。
In 2008-2009 it took 648,000 of the richest taxpayers to pay a quarter of the country's income tax revenues。
John Whiting, the Tax Policy Director of the Chartered Institute of Taxation, said: "The rich are getting proportionately richer, and therefore are paying more tax。
"In a curious way it demonstrates what a contribution they make. It is well worth the country attempting to keep them here. In trading terms, they make a considerable profit for the taxman."
There have been fears in the City that the 50p tax rate would drive out many businessmen from London. Though some hedge funds have relocated to Switzerland there is no evidence of companies or individuals relocating offshore in substantial numbers。官方數據顯示，今年英國四分之一的所得稅收入將來自於1%的納稅人。
該數據與1978年的數據形成了強烈的反差。1978年英國實行附加稅制，最富有的1%的人所繳納的稅收只佔全部稅收的11%。
專家們認爲，英國稅務海關總署發佈的預測顯示了在過去三十年中富人變得更富，同時他們的課稅負擔近年來也有了大幅增長。
最新的所得稅最高稅率(50%)是於2010年4月開始施行的，該稅率使得一小部分人不得不應對自1988年以來的最高個稅稅率。
這一最高稅率是由前工黨政府推行的，目前還不是很清楚該稅率能爲政府籌到多少錢。但是上週英國稅務海關總署發佈的對本納稅年度所得稅收入的預測顯示，共有27.5萬人將按最高稅率繳稅，稅費可達414億英鎊，佔英國全部所得稅收入的25.7%。
預計本納稅年度共有3060萬納稅人。
在2008-2009年度，同一比例(1/4)的所得稅收入由64.8萬名最富有的納稅人繳納。
英國特許稅務師工會的稅收政策主管約翰•懷廷說：“相對來說富人變得更富了，所以支付的稅費也更多。”
“稅費以一種特殊的方式展示了富人們對社會所做的貢獻。國家努力把這些人留住是非常值得的。用貿易術語來說，這些人爲稅務機關帶來了十分可觀的利潤。”
倫敦金融城內有人擔心50%的稅率會迫使很多商人離開倫敦。但是目前除了一些遷到瑞士的對衝基金公司之外，並沒有跡象顯示大批公司或個人打算離境遷往別處。
