When you ask rich people how much taxes they should pay they will inevitably come up with a lower number than when you ask poor people how much rich people should pay.
Ask anyone how much they need to earn to be ‘comfortable’ and they say something like “£10,000 more than I earn now.”
Most of us accept we need to pay taxes to fund public services, but have various ideas as to what amount is “fair”. This applies to (1) where the tax falls, and (2) the rate of tax.
I do not begrudge Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates $ of their wealth. They were the risk takers who made it. Gates is admirable by giving away most for good purposes.
Conversely I do begrudge some of the directors of existing S&P or FT 100 companies. They award themselves large salaries and stock options, but take no risk.
The other party is HMG which sets taxes. The record over the last 7 months has been lamentable: taking away Winter Fuel Allowance, raisin employer NIC, and prospectively taxing pension funds via IHT. At the same time they do not say how the money will be spent: the bottomless pit of the inefficient unreformed NHS? More windmills so we pay the highest price in the world for energy?
I think very rich people like Bill Gates understand that the path from taxation to actual benefit is sketchy at best. Government agencies, opaque decisions and plenty of money laundering and grift. But one thing that surprises me is how little Gates and others have done to set up working non-profits in the US that help people advance and get into the "sweet spot" of US abundance. I am supportive of getting clean drinking water and toilets in poor parts of the world but they have so much *intelligence* and resources that they could do better than than the US government in figuring out how to improve, educate and enrich poor people here in the US.
Ask anyone how much they need to earn to be ‘comfortable’ and they say something like “£10,000 more than I earn now.”
Most of us accept we need to pay taxes to fund public services, but have various ideas as to what amount is “fair”. This applies to (1) where the tax falls, and (2) the rate of tax.
I do not begrudge Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates $ of their wealth. They were the risk takers who made it. Gates is admirable by giving away most for good purposes.
Conversely I do begrudge some of the directors of existing S&P or FT 100 companies. They award themselves large salaries and stock options, but take no risk.
The other party is HMG which sets taxes. The record over the last 7 months has been lamentable: taking away Winter Fuel Allowance, raisin employer NIC, and prospectively taxing pension funds via IHT. At the same time they do not say how the money will be spent: the bottomless pit of the inefficient unreformed NHS? More windmills so we pay the highest price in the world for energy?
I think very rich people like Bill Gates understand that the path from taxation to actual benefit is sketchy at best. Government agencies, opaque decisions and plenty of money laundering and grift. But one thing that surprises me is how little Gates and others have done to set up working non-profits in the US that help people advance and get into the "sweet spot" of US abundance. I am supportive of getting clean drinking water and toilets in poor parts of the world but they have so much *intelligence* and resources that they could do better than than the US government in figuring out how to improve, educate and enrich poor people here in the US.