Acceptable behaviour contracts
17 February 2008 in General In a thought provoking speech, containing more than the odd swipe at the current government, Frank Field MP has proposed that the super-rich be encouraged to be more philanthropic.
He suggests the better off should be required to pay an additional tax of 10% on annual income over a certain level, but that the surcharge can be offset by donations to charity. Interestingly, and in the context of increasing disquiet over the degree to which the current government has squandered tax revenues in recent years, Mr Field suggests the 10% surcharge should be seen not as a means of collecting extra tax revenues but, rather, as a way of encouraging philanthropy on the grounds that charities and private foundations could make better use of the money.
Mr Field suggests the 10% surcharge could appliy to income over £150,000. Older readers will recall the threshold for the old 15% Investment Income Surcharge was only a comparatively meagre £7,100, when IIS was abolished in 1984.
The speech can be found here.
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