I agree with Rev. There would still be tax Mike, just not income tax. This system you are describing is one of the most iniquitous methods of taxing, as Rev has explained. It sounds awful if effective-- but then didn't Mussolini make the trains run on time!
And anyway what is wrong with taxes? Wealthy people would have to be taxed considerably more on their massive incomes in order for it to hurt much ( I suggest as an example Madonna spending millions on a house to make it into her own gym. She seems to know about need in Africa as she recently stole a small boy to adopt from there, presumably to give him a better future). Tax 'em I say-- make them bleed!! Then spend the taxes collected on providing the services we all agree we need. Roads, schools, hospitals, housing ... and lots more- as well as foreign AID not foreign WAR. We need to ensure that those elected to government understand that it is not the taxes that are the problem but the uses to which they are put that upsets people.
Rev- That sounds like an amazing childhood- I had a childhood friend who emigrated to St John's many years ago, and her stories always verged on the exotic!!
[quote=Mike Kremer] 2 Ellis
Tax the rich make 'em bleed....I used to think exactly the same.
especially when you hear of these huge salarys, plus yearly bonuses.
But I dont think like that anymore. Because as soon as you tax the very rich, they-up-stakes and leave the country.
Originally the very rich in the UK were hard working educated entrepreneurs, who paid 19/6d in £(thats 95p on every 100p) earned above a certain threshold. They soon left the UK to work in the US. Chemists Doctors Physicists Company directors all left our shores by the hundreds. Leaving us devoid of the people we needed to build up a country. It was our loss.
These days if boffins emigrate its not because of taxes, (we now have the lowest taxes in Europe). Its because the Americans are able to attract the top people by paying them top wages.
Money talks, no country can afford to lose its millionaires thru taxing them to highly.
I can understand your feelings regarding those in the entertainment industry, Madonna included, but just where would you draw the line? Her investments in property and interest earned on her money, must account for something? At least she earned it honestly.
How about lottery millionaires their winnings are totally tax free?
