Top Earners Pay Most Tax 
New figures from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) have revealed that in 2013-14, the best-paid 1 per cent of workers will contribute 29.8 per cent of all income tax, thereby fulfilling Chancellor George Osborne’s pledge that those with the ‘broadest shoulders must bear the biggest burden’.

To qualify for the top 1 per cent, an individual would have to earn in excess of £160,000 a year, while those who earn more than £1m a year will contribute 11.8 per cent of all tax.

In 1997, the same group accounted for 20 per cent, and in 2007, before the financial crisis began, the richest 1 per cent paid 24.4 per cent. HMRC's figures also showed that there were around 29 million individual income taxpayers in 2010-11 and of those, about 28 million paid the basic rate, while roughly 290,000 paid the top rate of tax.

At the same time, the top rate of tax paid by those earning more than £150,000 a year has dropped from 50p to 45p in the pound, leading to claims from the Labour party that the rich would pay less.

However, commenting on the data, Conservative MP, Harriett Baldwin, said the new figures undermined Labour's argument. She said that the statistics will “once and for all end the Labour myth of millionaire tax cuts”.

In fact, she added, the 24 million people who have seen their tax-free threshold increased every year are the basic rate taxpayers, who are quite rightly getting a tax cut.

Interestingly, separate data published this week shows that the UK’s top rate of tax dropped from the fifth to the 11th highest in the EU and the Government’s reduction in the top rate of tax was the largest cut anywhere in the world this year.

For more information, please contact Glazers, Chartered Accountants London or visit www.glazers.co.uk




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