LONDON: Britain highest earners pay more than a quarter of the country’s entire income tax bill, more than when the Coalition came to power.
Nearly 300,000 taxpayers are forecast to contribute the equivalent of £45.9 billion in income tax between them by the end of this year, equivalent to £150,000 each. The amount they have paid has risen from 25 per cent of the nation’s tax bill when Labour came to power to 27.3 per cent this year.
The figures will be welcomed by the Conservatives, after repeated accusations from Labour that the party has given tax breaks to the rich.
They also suggest that the Coalition’s decision to cut the top rate of tax from 50p to 45p has increased revenues.
When George Osborne announced that he was cutting the top rate in 2012, Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, described it as a “tax cut for millionaires”.
