Way OT: RE: @Home's 119 domain names up for sale

Fri Aug 12 16:46:48 UTC 2005

Hi,

With apologies to the topic fairies ..

Crist Clark wrote:
> It matters how you look at income taxes (figures never lie, but
> liars figure). The top 3% of earners pay about 40% of all income
> taxes. The top 1/12% pay about 10% of the taxes. Why do the super
> rich guys want a flat tax? And the other obvious problem, you pay
> a lot of taxes, probably more than you realize, besides income tax.

The top few percent will pay a lower _percentage_ of their income to the 
government in tax than a middle earner would (a high earner will 
typically save more, or in other words their marginal propensity to save 
is higher) - they are also able to save more and afford better 
accountants who will help them avoid paying tax !

In the UK, income tax is hugely regressive - a middle earner may end up 
paying 51% of some proportion of their income in direct tax alone 
(combining NHIS contributions and income tax) - this then falls to 41% 
(combined) when the NHIS contributions hit a certain level.  The tax 
burden on high earners is further reduced when one considers that 
indirect sales tax in the UK is 17.5%.

-a