What governments can't seem to stand is that the working class, both rich and not so rich, for example in Germany, get so spitting mad over the fact that blue-haired punks and all-around moon-howlers are being financed and upkept with their hard-earned tax euros, to such a degree that of late one of the leading magazines published a report according to which it was better business, after all was said and taxed, for certain tax brackets to join the unemployed rather than to hold their job.

Eugene, Heidelberg, Germany

I really would not object to paying tax if that money was used responsibly. But the waste is astounding, as ambitious ministers vie with each other to announce the latest eye catching 'initiative' all in an attempt to steal the headlines. There should be a ban on 'media advisors' being employed.
Why for instance does Mr. Speaker require a 'media advisor'.
It is only when he resigned recently that anyone outside the administration knew of his existence.

Davd Nammory, Liverpool,

The article is great but the comment are fascinating! I would ask, Who teaches math in the UK? 83 % top marginal rate and 15% on investment income does not a 98% rate make!!!!!!
Makes one wonder how London became a 'Financial Capitol".

Gary Shields, Auburn , California, U. S. of A.

Tax,tax,tax how i love to tax sings Gorden & co, put my hand in your pocket and let me take your tax. Poor GB and friends 18 years in the wilderness lessons learnt nil, ten years in office and country heads for big problems but GB & friends dont worry, why should they their dole money is fully guaranteed by tax.
Will the last one to leave the country please turn off the lights.

Dave, Mold, Flintshire

So now all data will be up for grabs at a price!
This action will lead to nuclear secrets and God knows what else to be hawked for cash around the world to the highest bidder.
There is one law for citizens and no law for governments.
Don't we understand how dangerous this is?
The European super state is already here and the Germans are in charge.

James, London, U.K

Many countries have now introduced a single tax in the form of a flat tax rate on all income, personal and corporate, and evidence suggests that overall tax income is actually higher as a result. The bloated tax legislation of the UK has created a huge compliance burden for business, created thousands of loopholes that only wealthy companies and individuals with tax advisers can afford to exploit and has resulted in a turgid, incompetent HM Revenue & Customs service sending battalions of civil servants to harass the middle classes and small business owners.

The costs that could be saved by reducing the complexity of the tax system would offset the reduced tax burden on individuals and people would be able to spend more of their own money, stimulating the economy (which would then have to employ the half a million lazy jobsworths that the HMRC would no longer need).

But then, that would require a political party that was actually willing to do something new.

Jerry, leeds, UK

M Rudd, "people with money" are getting exceptional returns, that's why London is the world's financial centre. That's a good thing for the econony. There does however have to be a limit to greed, and my central point remains - when things turn really bad, where do the "wealth creators" run to be bailed out: the good old tax payer of course.

Business, both in this country and the US, remains massively subsidised in many, many ways. As you note, tax rates have plummeted since the 70s. They are quite low enough.

Every government - red or blue - taxes to broadly the same extent, because they know there is no choice. All Thatcher's minions did was adjust the targeting and make sure they made themselves and their friends rich in the process. The tax burden is, in broad terms, not a lot different. It's necessary.

Eric Ambleside, Yorkshire,

The top rate of personal income tax in the 1970s was 83% and if you had investment income there was a 15% investment income surcharge. The effective marginal rate for many people was 98%. What is gradually happening in this country is a return to the confiscatory tax regime of the 1970s. The political party responsible, then and now, is the Labour party.

John, LONDON,

In your report yu say that in the 70's the top rate of TAX was 80% (if only) it was infact 98% and there was a sercharge of 5% on unearned income above £100'000.

Michael Rudd, Barking, Essex

All of the 'tax havens' are able to levy low tax levels as they don't have a large infrastructure or resident population to support. Why should people who live in the larger countries lose out because of this. Most tax payers would love to pay less tax, but can't because we're on PAYE, whilst the likes of Philip Green take a massive amount of money from his UK businesses, and gives it to his wife, who is domiciled in Monaco.

David Leslie, Perth, Scotland

Eric Ambleside, Yorkshire, From your post, you seem to be from the same mold as the 60/70 style socialists, it was the same attitudes that resulted in the huge outflow of capital, and the refusal to invest in new tech, unless the people with money can be given a reasonable return on their investment they will go else where.

Michael Rudd, Barking, Essex

My heart bleeds. Poor rich people having to take their assets offshore to avoid having to contribute their fair share to the tax pot.
Need any of us be reminded that tax pays for the NHS, for education, for spending on infrastructure, for prisons, for the police ... the list goes on.
Paying your fair share of tax is a moral issue and those who seek to avoid doing so are little better than thieves.

Sarah, London,

The whining anti-tax "wealth creators" would be some of the very same people who come running to mummy (i.e. the state) as soon as the markets look a bit black for them, suddenly deciding that state intervention isn't such a bad idea at all.

The writer would do well to remember that the "dependent sector" typically includes the exploited who actually do the work to keep the allegedly wealth creating sector in the style to which some of it seems to think is their divine right.

Where would the UK financial sector be right now without billions upon billions of tax pounds? Stuffed is the answer, along with the rest of the economy.

He'll no doubt go home and complain about the pot holes in the road - how would he like the repairs paid for? Economies are vastly complex, and it's pure fantasy to think that markets will deliver with massive government intervention.

And by the way, Thatcher and Lawson left a mess in their wake which has taken years to sort out.

Eric Ambleside, Yorkshire,

"Those with long memories will recollect Britain in the 1970s when the top tax rate was close to 80 per cent. "

And those of us with even longer memories will point to the time when the effective top rate of tax was actually 98% - 83% on earned income, and an extra 15% as investment income surcharge. Investment income included anything that you took out of a business over and above what the Inland Revenue deemed an appropriate management salary.

When Mrs Thatcher took office, one of her government's first moves was to reduce the top rate of tax to 60%. The result was an INCREASE in total tax revenue. A further reduction, to the current 40% took place 10 years later and again resulted in increased total tax revenues.

I for one suspect that if the UK dropped all income tax rates to 20% total tax revenue would shoot through the roof...

Mary, London,

This all reminds me of the 1970s and Denis Healeys 'we'll squeeze the rich till the pips squeak'.
The problem was 'the rich' became everyone who had an income. There are many similarities in the economic situation now, to what prevailed in the 70s. High corporate and personal taxation, high numbers of skilled or ' wealthy' people emigrating, large numbers of immigrants arriving to do work our own people would not do, who then became a burden when the economy got into serious trouble.
And now we have a government that is willing to become an accessory to a serious crime, in its greed for more and more money. The outlook is not good.

Dudley Holley, Thorpe Bay, UK

We want ever more services, a better military and less taxes. Aint gonna happen people. Taxes are too high for companies and individuals in the UK, but what are we prepared to cut? We have to save 30 billion now as a nation to eliminate the government budget deficit THEN we have to cut further to allow tax reduction. But who gets the reduction? Business or people?

Brown's mismanagement of the economy is now showing though and we are going to have to pay because it will need the brutality of a Thatcher/Howe regime to sort the mess out.

Neil Murphy, cromer,

I recently had to explain to an employee on average earnings, why a third of her sales commission disappeared in tax. She thought i had made a mistake. I then explained about employers nic, which reduced what the company could afford to pay her by a further 10%, making an effective 43% tax rate. She was horrified. Now that the cost of living is rising, I think we are reaching the point where ordinary people are beginning to think that the government tax take is too high.

andrew, swindon, uk

"The state is on the march, in search of ever more cash to oil its creaking machinery"

And to subsidise the folly of private enterprise, to the tune of tens of billions in the case of Northern Rock..

I wonder if the exchequors of Ireland, Switzerland or Liechtenstein would be able to cover those kinds of liabilities, or inject the kind of liquidity into the banking system that the Bank of England and ECB were obliged to provide.

Maybe European governments should allow irresponsibly run private enterprises to die by their free market swords, instead of heeding the hysterical cries for state intervention, but only when it suits the men on yachts.

Marcos, London, UK

If the UK really had a top rate of tax at 40% the UK would be in a much better position. But a UK domiciled company directors pay 40% tax and 1% NI plus 12.8% employers NI on top. A direct tax rate of nearly 50%. My motivation for leaving the UK was the effective 80% tax I was paying when I took into account all the indirect taxes demanded. VAT, Uniform Business Rates, Council Tax, Fuel duty, Air passenger Duty, Insurance tax, Import duty, alcohol tax, land fill tax, stamp duty, Road fund tax, Speed Camera tax, Parking taxes. Pension regulator tax, Companies House late fees tax. Capital gains tax on second homes and eventually Death duty at 40% of what's left.

Stamp duty is extremely onerous. At 5% is it paid out of taxed income and houses in the SE are at least twice the price of similar houses in most other countries. Thus before tax stamp duty amounts to 20% of the price of a similar home abroad. If you buy a home at 6 times earnings the cost of moving is prohibitive.

Paul, abroad,