According to the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, millionaires are not paying their fair share of taxes due to having the ability to hire teams of lawyers and accountants which have been enabling them to pay less than 20% of their earnings. Currently there is a 50% tax rate for the upper earners and few, if any, actually pay at that rate. Mr. Clegg is calling for the introduction of a new tax which is being called the ‘tycoon tax’ which will mandate that the wealthiest of Britons be required to pay at least a minimum of 20% to the taxman.
Whilst being interviewed by the Telegraph, Mr. Clegg did indicate that he would be willing to favour doing away with the current 50% rate for top earners as long as it was made clear that the wealthy would be made to pay their fair share. With loopholes and reliefs which are available to the wealthy, millionaires are paying less of a percentage than those common workers who are struggling to make ends meet.
During the Liberal Democrat spring conference, Mr. Clegg is expected to champion changes that will ensure the Exchequer will actually get the hundreds of millions of pounds annually that the wealthy should be paying. According to the Deputy Prime Minister, there should be a minimum which the wealthy should be bound by so that they are no longer able to manipulate the system. If this minimum rate is actually written into the law, there will be no way around it as there currently is.
What inspired Mr. Clegg to support the tycoon tax is it was reported that Mitt Romney, the probable Republican presidential candidate, disclosed that he only paid less than 14% of his earnings of multi-millions of dollars annually. The Deputy Prime Minister further stated that he would hope that sort of thing didn’t go on in Britain, even though evidence shows that it does, but to a lesser degree. If the tycoon tax is legislated, Britain will be hundreds of millions to the better.
