Posted: Mar 16, 2012 2:28 pm
Panderos wrote:What are the nature of the avoidance schemes used to get round the 50p tax rate?
Can they continue to be used when the rate is dropped down to 40p?
So much hot air around this issue and so few numbers.
Move yourself or your income out of the scope of UK tax eg Tina Green (Mrs Philip Green) who apparently is the real retail tycoon and has £bns in dividends accruing to UK operations paid to her in monaco or whatever it is she lives for at least six months of the year.
Convert your income to capital gains which the torydems will continue to tax at a lower rate than income because...erm...just because. Eg earn and retain your money in a series of ltd companies which you liquidate periodically taking the cash as capital distributions instead of income. All this hot air about increasing the income tax personal allowance, everyone already gets an additional ~£10k capital gains tax annual exempt amount which almost noone except the rich will ever be able to utilise or even be aware of.
All strategies will continue to be perfectly viable at 50% or 40% and remember the torydems are cutting HMRC staff and funding, something like 10,000 fewer tax inspectors to police adherence to it all.
I can only assume the discussion around the 50% rate is intended to be a diversion from the torydems raise of the regressive VAT, destruction of the NHS, slashing other services and benefits and whatever else they are about to announce that will disproportionately hammer the poor.