Hit the Right Target
I can see why anyone being asked to pay 50% tax on their earnings - would be extremely annoyed.
Because once you factor in National Insurance contributions - 50% rate taxpayers are effectively paying a further 10% tax on what they earn.
So where's the incentive to work hard and harder - beyond a certain point - must seem like a reasonable question to people earning such high earners.
As long as they're not getting money for old rope - which many seems to do if the BBC is anything to go by.
So being allowed to keep less than half - only 40% - of what you earn seems a bit harsh to me - though in the present climate no one is going to make too much of a fuss.
But people who pay their taxes - at 40%, 50% or 60% - are not the problem.
The real problem is organised tax evasion which is routine and widespread in the football world - for example - but is very common in business and other walks of life as well.
Star football players earning millions of pounds a year pay only 2 or 3% in UK income tax - because their earnings are channelled through artificially created companies - and off-shore tax havens.
Now no one likes paying taxes - whatever people earn they'd like to keep more.
But the real villains of the piece are not the high earners who actually pay their taxes - whether reluctantly or not.
No, the real villains are the UK's high earning tax avoiders - who pay a marginal tax rate of 2 or 3% on their film star salaries - and you'd be surprised how many there are.
