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Rishi Sunak considers tax cut for top earners after byelection defeats (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 year ago by tintory@lemm.ee to c/world@lemmy.world

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[-] WaltJRimmer@lemmy.world 74 points 1 year ago

Wait, wait, wait... The average middle-class voter who is struggling to get by is starting to turn away from the Tories and their leader's suggestion is to reduce taxes on the wealthiest people? Not to improve services or perhaps address the issues that drove former conservative party voters to Labour. No. Cutting the taxes of the elite, further reducing funding for services that the majority of voters use or rely on is the obvious answer.

[-] beebarfbadger@lemmy.world 31 points 1 year ago

Smash&Grab tactics with... do I smell a hint of Scorched Earth in the mix there?

[-] CantSt0pPoppin@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago

Person 1: Smash n Grab with a side of Scorched Earth?

Person 2: Sounds like a recipe for destruction.

Person 1: but the heat would be so intense

Person 2: (Whispers) I'm a fire starter.

Person 1: (Laughs) I know.

[-] CantSt0pPoppin@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

The Tories are out of touch. Middle class only exists on paper anymore, and the Tories' answer is to cut taxes for the rich?

[-] LastSprinkles@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

He wants to increase the threshold of where you start paying 40%. The title of this article makes it sound like it's 45% but it's not. Currently this threshold is at about £50k. So this would make the biggest difference to exactly the middle classes.

[-] jonne@infosec.pub 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It's probably more to stave off a rebellion from Tory MPs and to keep donations flowing, not as an electoral strategy.

[-] dumdum666@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

I am not from the UK do allow me a question: From what yearly income on, do you guys have to pay the „top tax“ and how high is it at the moment?

[-] Person264@lemmings.world 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

£125,140 a year you pay 45% income tax. But it's not quite that simple because you don't pay 45% on everything, just whatever is earned above that and the other thresholds https://www.gov.uk/income-tax-rates

[-] killeronthecorner@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Depends how you look at it. You lose £1 of PA for every £2 earned over £100k, which is an effective 50% tax rate.

Plus it adds the irritation of having to file a tax return even though you're on PAYE

[-] lennier@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

You also lose £2k worth of tax free childcare instantly as soon as you earn £100k, a rare instance of it actually being possible to earn less money by getting a payrise

[-] killeronthecorner@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

It's worth fiddling with your pension contributions to avoid that.

Also I'm not sure how the new childcare policy factors into it. I really need to look into it.

[-] Person264@lemmings.world 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah it's not quite as simple as I put in my comment

[-] dumdum666@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Interesting- compared to my country Germany where you have to pay 42% for everything you earn above (!) 62.810 €

Guess Germany hates its middle class even more than the UK…

[-] Person264@lemmings.world 4 points 1 year ago

We also have national insurance and a tax free allowance, so the effective rate for someone at say £54k (about €62k) would be about 25% https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/tax-calculator/ I think I've worked that out right.

[-] Nefrayu@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

In Ireland it’s about 48% on everything above €40k, then 52% above €70k.

That by itself could be misleading though, the overall effective tax rate for someone on €40k is 18%, around 30% at €70k. The thresholds will rise next year.

[-] Squizzy@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

What is the break down of this? Is it the higher USC band? I'm not familiar with a 52% tax rate.

[-] Nefrayu@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah after about €70k there is a higher rate of USC. The 52% includes PAYE, PRSI and USC at the highest bands for a regular employee.

[-] PCurd@feddit.uk 2 points 1 year ago

Per the article it’s not the top rate he plans to edit but the middle 40% rate which currently starts at £50,270. It’s a little more complex because there is also National Insurance to pay which drops when you hit the 40% tax rate so effectively you go from paying 32% total below £50,270 to 42% above £50,270 (for income above that level). There is a tax free band below £12,570 as well.

I’m simplifying because tax is complicated but roughly that’s how it works. As you move up tax bands you also lose amounts of other allowances like free dividend interest. Above £100k income it gets more complex because even more allowances are removed, especially the tax free band gets reduced.

[-] TwoGems@lemmy.world 33 points 1 year ago

Do the UK old people have lead in their brains too? Stop voting for Tory shitbags.

[-] Worx@lemmynsfw.com 8 points 1 year ago

We don't need lead to hate foreigners, it's our God-given right as rulers of the Empire!

Uh.. I mean.. "we value our traditions" or something..

[-] gmtom@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Yes

[-] jantin@lemmy.world 32 points 1 year ago

Blah blah blah

Rats know they're losing so they want to give farewell gifts to their cronies before leaving and punish the poors for not voting Tory.

Also helps to harm economy and national redources as much as possible so that the next administration fails to do anything and Tories can return in a further election cycle.

[-] Hello_there@kbin.social 31 points 1 year ago

How do you look at an election defeat and think: "That's what we need. More of exactly the same."

[-] nicetriangle@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

Easy conclusion to reach when you weren't there to help common people in the first place

[-] Ghyste@sh.itjust.works 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Tax cuts for votes. They're not even trying to hide it anymore.

[-] rockSlayer@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

When tf is there supposed to be another election in the UK? It almost feels like a strategy from the Tories to continually have their PMs resign so they stay in power. It would be nice for the UK to have some sanity again

[-] FlowVoid@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The last election was in 2019, so the next one must be no later than 2024.

[-] Why9@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Jan 2025 is the latest they can hold it, if I remember correctly.

Though it would be beneficial to evict Starmer from the red Seat before that happens too.

[-] buzziebee@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

It absolutely wouldn't be. What are you on about? A big part of why Labour are polling well because they look like a safe pair of hands. Starting an interparty factional war over who the new leader should be will completely damage that and possibly lose there election.

Half of the Tory base are either indifferent to a Labour victory or would actively vote for them. If you throw another Corbyn in the mix that will change and the base will come out again. It's simple electoral math. Please stop advocating for more Tory rule.

[-] echodot@feddit.uk 3 points 1 year ago

January 1st 2025 assuming they don't call an earlier election.

Waiting until January would be a mistake though because it would mean that your campaigning over Christmas which is a terrible time to be doing campaigning. Everyone's busy with other things and no one wants to be thinking about politics.

[-] BenadrylChunderHatch@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

There's 5 years between elections unless the ruling party calls one early so a pm resigning doesn't help but calling an election early and winning does. We're still on the clock from Johnson's 2019 landslide win - which he called 3 years early because they were way ahead in the polls. Truss and Sunak didn't call early elections because they already had a big majority and would probably lose seats.

[-] IntergalacticZombie@feddit.uk 18 points 1 year ago

Maybe one day I will be making lots of money and will want to pay less tax. I better start voting tory... Is that how they think people think? Or even worse, are there people who really think like that?

[-] bobs_monkey@lemm.ee 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I mean, that's the US GOP in a nutshell, that whole "temporarily embarrassed ~~millionaires~~ billionaires" bit.

[-] Zahille7@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I ~~hate~~ love that you had to strike through "millionaires"...

[-] jonne@infosec.pub 5 points 1 year ago

It works on enough people, unfortunately.

[-] spacecowboy@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 year ago

What a ghoul.

[-] fosforus@sopuli.xyz 8 points 1 year ago

Give the top 10% a tax cut or rejoin EU? Choices, choices.

[-] MrSilkworm@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

Because this way, the Tories will definitely take the struggling middle class on their side during the next elections.

[-] Illecors@lemmy.cafe 1 points 1 year ago

They might. 50k threshold is not really all that high.

[-] Grant_M@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 year ago

Figured it was The Onion for sure...

[-] sirico@feddit.uk 4 points 1 year ago

60% of the time it works every time

[-] autotldr@lemmings.world 3 points 1 year ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Rishi Sunak is considering a tax cut for the 5 million highest earners and reducing stamp duty in an attempt to ease the pressure on his leadership after two historic byelection defeats, it has been reported.

The Conservatives may raise the 40% income tax threshold after Labour’s victory in Mid Bedfordshire, Nadine Dorries’ former seat.

The Daily Telegraph reported that surveys have been carried out by Downing Street to ascertain which tax reduction could give the party the biggest political pre-election boost with the 2024 spring budget considered the earliest it could be announced.

The Conservatives are also planning to reduce stamp duty for their general election manifesto next year if the economy has strengthened, the Times reported.

A senior Tory told the Times that reducing stamp duty would be “aspirational” and improve the economy in addition to attracting middle-class voters who had left the party.

Official figures showed that public sector net borrowing was £14.3bn last month, lower than the £20.5bn that had been forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility.

The original article contains 304 words, the summary contains 172 words. Saved 43%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

this post was submitted on 21 Oct 2023

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