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Permalink Reply by Pipeliner on April 4, 2009 at 5:55

When a government sets out "To Soak The Rich", you can be sure every one gets wet.

During the 12 years I lived and worked in the U.K., the Labour Party,(hard left) was always raising taxes on tobacco, alcohol and petrol (gasoline) to "soak" the Rich.

Since the company directors had company cars with drivers, insurance paid by the company, fuel and upkeep paid, this did not affect them As far as tobacco and spirits, they had expense accounts (very loose compared to the US) to cover these "entertainment expenses". English executives, doing the same job as American executives did, back then, for a half or one third the salary as the Americans were paid. What was important to the English were the "perks", not their heavily-taxed wages.

That left "Joe-Six-Pack" (or maybe it was Ian-Six-Pint) to pick up the tab.

It got so silly and the government so grasping, that you could be taxed 88% of your wages (income tax, tax surcharge and national health & social security insurance). National Health is not free as everyone thinks.

If you needed a pipe welder to work for you on a Sunday, and if you paid him $100/day "on-the-books" he would get to keep $12 for 10 hours or $1.20 an hour. To get him to come out & work, you had to pay him cash.

If you made your money from unearned income-bank interest, song or invention royalty, etc you could be taxed 97%.This was in the late 1960s to early 1970s. They left you 3 cents on the dollar.

That is when many entertainers became "Tax Exiles". The government had in place currency controls, so you could only take out 100 English pounds (about $240 then). Since the cost of everything in Europe cost double or triple what it costs in the USA, you could not have much of a holiday on that.

You did not have to worry about gas or oil royalty tax as the "Crown" or government owned all the gas and oil

They had death taxes so high that if a British passport holder that resided in Malta, would die in Malta, his estate would owe 112% death tax to the two government.

Taxes now in the U.K. are more affordable after the above tax laws were changed.

Another point, in the UK National Health System, the doctors and health care workers have the right to strike. Everytime doctors strike in the U.K., less people die, than when the doctors are working.

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