Re:Liz Truss urges world leaders to follow UK with trickle d...
by austinjp on Wednesday September 21, 2022 @06:01AM
(#32922848)
While this may all be true, a more sobering perspective comes from considering the impact on the individuals paying the taxes:
"the poorest fifth of people paid 22.9% on indirect taxes such as Value Added Tax (VAT) compared with 9.1% for the richest fifth" [0].
"As it stands, there is set to be both an Income Tax rise and Income Tax cut in 2024-25, and a further tax rise in 2025-26, with a net transfer from lower- to higher-income individuals" [1].
To return to parent comment's point, trickle-down economics have demonstrably failed. Taxes are avoided by the rich while punishing the poor - surely absolutely not what should be happening.
[0] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personal...
[1] https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/happy-new-...
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-...
The top 1% of earners pay roughly 30% of all income tax. The top 10% pay roughly 50% of all income tax. Meanwhile, the bottom 50% pay roughly 10% of income tax.
That leaves to 50-90th percentile, who you might call "middle class" (although it's debatable whether someone in the 80-90 range is truly middle class) who pay approximately 30% of all income tax. So the whole middle class only pays as much tax in total as the 90-99 range, although their total of pre-tax income is double.
[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/most-millionaires-dont-think...