Chancellor’s taxing times

Jan 24 2008 by Andrew Baldwin, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

INCOME tax increases are the bogeyman that used to haunt Labour politicians in the night.

Threaten to hit Middle England where it hurts and the whining can be heard far and wide.

Yet it is now clear in the wake of the credit crunch and the challenging economic situation that Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling may have to face up to the prospect.

As he prepares for his first Budget in March, many are predicting he will either have to raise taxes or cut public services. Or both.

He would do well to read a think-tank’s proposal that the super rich should pay more income tax.

The New Local Government Network’s suggestion is that there should be an additional tax band of 10% for people earning more than £200,000 a year.

Good idea.

What’s more the extra revenue could be used to fund reductions in council tax.

It seems like a win-win situation for the majority of us who have seen the gap between rich and poor widen considerably under Labour.

For a government which places so much emphasis on social “inclusion”, it is strange that this disparity has arisen.

In fact, the wealthy have done so well under Britain’s relatively cheap tax regime that the country has usurped traditional haunts of the super rich, including tax havens on the Riviera and that bastion of personal financial privacy, Switzerland.

Let them take the strain rather than Everyman.