[Vicky.]

Originally Posted by Oliver_W

I'm more in the thought of "if you want something, you should earn it; if you earn something, you should get to keep it"

Well yes, but its just not feasible for a lot of people, for many reasons to be ABLE to work themselves up to these ridiculously high paid jobs. As I just said to brillo, its not just a case of education and hard work = high wages.

If higher earners want to give money to charities alongside their taxes, that should be up to them.

Yes, high earners can also give to charity. Are you equating paying taxes with giving to charity here? Thats how its coming across

Edited to fix, to the best of my offhand knowledge.

I can't argue against this, as I don't actually know besides what my father told me years back. So not sure which is right

Well, exactly. While £70k isn't exactly nothing, it's a bit silly to call them super rich, and certainly not what you think of when you hear "top 5%"

I actually find it fairly sad that the 'top 5%' of earners in this country many of them earn like 70k ish. When the companies profits all seem to be astronomical...I do think many more people should be on wages such as 70k. The cost of living is enormous these days...either the cost of living needs to go down, or wages need to go up.

Luckily the increases to the living wage proposed will change the averages and such. Even someone who works in a care home (presently paid as low as possible and made to work a lot of hours, much harder than many people on 70k+ I would bet...and obviously a much needed job) will be on well...lets guess they do 60 hours a week which is not too much of a stretch from carers I know...600 per week before tax. 2400 per month 25k or so. For a job thats presently paid a stupidly low amount and is often looked down on

I don't care about what the Tax Payers' Alliance want, I have affiliation with them; I just think there should be a flat rate. I don't have to agree with anything else they want, to want that.

How would a flat tax rate actually work in reality though? The income from tax would drop horrendously if flat rate was like 20%, OR the rate for everyone would need to be set at like 45%, and then lower earners receive money back in the form of benefits to survive/pay rent. Which I expect would still be an issue for people as 'more people claiming benefits' and such :S And if the benefits received back were set too high, people would have a huge issue, even though the people in receipt of them are actually working. I can see there being hell on if the amounts are set to anything about basic sustenance too.