Sunak

[malvolio]

I did think some high earners or people with massive windfalls could negotiate their tax rather than stump up the whole amount in an attempt to reduce aggressive avoidance and get some money in the coffers rather than move it all somewhere and get nothing. Could be wrong there though. Kind of makes sense if it's not badly abused but you can bet your bottom dollar Joe Public won't like it. Something like I'll pay you a million to leave me alone else I'm gonna off shore it and you'll get squat type approach.

People are ignoring the minor detail that his UK income is from his position as an MP and his top-up salary for being a Prime Minister living in No 10. that's not a stupidly high income stream and 22%, assuming stuff like pensions contributions and other allowances, is not that unrealistic. His US income is taxed in America, not in the UK.

With a wife with her own moderately good income ( ! ) and no doubt he has some tax-paid savings from his former career, he has zero need* to faff around with tax minimisation schemes as long as he is in government. Once he is no longer in government, he will join all the others overpaid nonentities on the gravy train, and may then pay a bit more attention to it..



* Waiting for our tame Guardianistas to say that of course he is, it's what they do... . To which you can of course respond with "Look at St Keir's personal position and pension arrangements".

[SueEllen]

It's difficult to become an MP if you are poor......

[malvolio]

It's difficult to become an MP if you are poor......

...or you are not a good enough politician to persuade others to help pay for you to become one?

[SueEllen]

...or you are not a good enough politician to persuade others to help pay for you to become one?

Apart from my first local MP who was a trade unionist and had a bog standard "working man's" job, all the other local MPs I've had well paid jobs and/or family wealth before they became one.

[SueEllen]

And here it is -

https://www.theguardian.com/politics...ed-for-in-2016

Rishi Sunak has saved more than £300,000 in tax thanks to a cut he voted for in 2016, according to an analysis of his tax records.

The prime minister has paid just over £1m in tax over the past three years, most of which was accrued on the gains he has made on his US-based investment portfolio. But that figure would have been £308,167 higher had the top rate of capital gains tax (CGT) not been cut by the Conservative government in 2016

The figures highlight the disparities between Britain’s income tax rates and its relatively low rates of CGT. The prime minister’s overall tax rate for the last three years was 22%, roughly equivalent to what a nurse would pay in income tax.

Dan Neidle, the founder of Tax Policy Associates, said: “This is about whether it is fair for people holding investments to pay about half the rate of people getting income through their salary. It is hard to see how it can be.”

Britain’s CGT rates were aligned with income tax rates until 1998, when Gordon Brown slashed them as chancellor. His successor Alistair Darling put them back up 10 years later, however, introducing a top rate of 28%.

In 2016, the Tory government cut that top rate back down to 20%, arguing it would encourage business investment. Sunak, then the new MP for Richmond, argued several times in the debate that followed that the cut was an important pro-business step – without saying whether he might benefit from it.

Sunak said in parliament in 2016: “I am confident that reducing capital gains tax rates – together with a brand new 10% rate for long-term investments in private businesses – will unlock millions in much-needed funding. From speaking with investors this past week, it is clear that those policies have cut through and generated a fresh wave of enthusiasm for investing in British companies.”

A No 10 source said: “The tax return shows that a considerable amount of capital gains tax is being paid.”

[SueEllen]

Torygraph has -

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics...e-brexit-deal/

Sir Keir Starmer has announced he is intending to publish his tax return later on today after Rishi Sunak published his yesterday.

Answering questions after delivering a speech in Stoke-on-Trent this morning, the Labour leader said: "Let me deal with the question of my tax returns now the Prime Minister has published his, I will publish mine, I hope to be able to do that later on today, so that is very, very straight forward



https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics...ution-service/

Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to scrap the tax benefits of his own pension after he was accused of hypocrisy over his support for the lifetime allowance.

The Labour leader said that if his party wins the next election he will change the law to remove a tax break he was personally granted by the Government when he became Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in 2008.

Sir Keir has faced accusations of hypocrisy from Conservative MPs after The Telegraph revealed his Crown Prosecution Service pension is exempt from the lifetime savings allowance he plans to reintroduce.

The pension scheme, of which he was the only member, had tax benefits that were "broadly" in line with those offered to judges, according to the CPS’s annual reports.

Ministers even passed a statutory instrument in Parliament that mentioned Sir Keir by name when he retired in 2013 to ensure his pension increased annually with inflation.

Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor, has abolished the allowance, which previously meant any pension savings over £1.07 million were subject to a tax of 25 per cent when drawn as income later in life.

[ladymuck]

If I understood it correctly when I read about Starmer's pension in the Torygraph yesterday, the value of the pot is below the current pension cap and he's not paid into it since 2013 so it's actually a bit of a non-story.

[malvolio]

Apart from my first local MP who was a trade unionist and had a bog standard "working man's" job, all the other local MPs I've had well paid jobs and/or family wealth before they became one.

There are an ever-increasing number of MPs who have done nothing but be in politics since leaving Uni with a degree in PPE and then been promoted to candidate by their party... A fair number of the rest have come from banking or the law. It would be interesting to see how many of the 650 have had what you and I would call "real" jobs.

[SueEllen]

Sir Keir has published his tax returns.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics...s-news-updates

Labour leader Keir Starmer has published his recent tax returns, as he pledged to so this morning a day after Rish Sunak became the first prime minister since David Cameron to do so.

They show he earned £275,000 in the last two years and paid £118,000 in tax

[Zigenare]

It's difficult to become an MP if you are poor......

<cough>Dennis Skinner</cough> An honourable man, unfortunately Labor.