Robert Winnett @ The Telegraph:
In the 2009-10 tax year, more than 16,000 people declared an annual income of more than £1 million to HM Revenue and Customs.
This number fell to just 6,000 after Gordon Brown introduced the new 50p top rate of income tax shortly before the last general election.
The figures have been seized upon by the Conservatives to claim that increasing the highest rate of tax actually led to a loss in revenues for the Government.
It is believed that rich Britons moved abroad or took steps to avoid paying the new levy by reducing their taxable incomes.
George Osborne, the Chancellor, announced in the Budget earlier this year that the 50p top rate will be reduced to 45p from next April.
Since the announcement, the number of people declaring annual incomes of more than £1 million has risen to 10,000.
However, the number of million-pound earners is still far below the level recorded even at the height of the recession and financial crisis.
Last night, Harriet Baldwin, the Conservative MP who uncovered the latest figures, said: “Labour’s ideological tax hike led to a tax cull of millionaires.
Far from raising funds, it actually cost the UK £7 billion in lost tax revenue.
What a shock. Who would have thought that people not only want to keep the money they have earned, but would actively try to protect it.
H.R. Maybe they came to U.S. so they could pay a lower rate. Even Romney said he wasn’t worried about millionaires.
Well, if they came to the US for a lower rate, they’d better have avoided California, New York, Hawaii, and other high-tax states, ‘cuz they’ll be paying something in the neighborhood of 45% today, and 55% next year. I recommend Canada: 29% to the crown, plus 12-14% depending on province. Plus there’s free health care and lots of energy. What’s not to like?
@Richard Wheeler:
$1.6 Trillion in revenue, end the debt ceiling, and $400 Billion in cuts. Change you can believe in my friend.