Sunday 2 December 2012

GO getting tough with the rich? Pull the other one!

I get easily confused.

It appears that the Chancellor is finally after tax evaders and the wealthy – about time too and begs the question why didn’t he start with them instead of hounding the poorest & most vulnerable in our society!

Anyway, that’s not why I’m confused.  It’s a couple of things that apparently he will be saying in his Autumn Statement on Wednesday.  (Don’t you just yearn for those wonderful days in the past when the news really was news and hadn’t been told to us hours or days before it happened.)

He’s going to ‘slash the £50,000 annual tax relief cap on pensions to as little as £30,000’  according to The Sunday Times.  What confuses me is when he uses the word ‘slash’ when these are millionaires we are talking about.  And doesn’t that mean they will still be able to claim £30000 a year, ie more than the average salary for the rest of us?

But more confusing still is the comment from his Sun interview (although as it is the Sun maybe they’ve got it wrong?)   "Every one of my Budgets has raised more from the richest” he says.  D’oh, what about the reduction in additional tax from 50% to 45%? 

If someone can explain any of the above I’d be glad to hear it!

Les