Rich And Poor Brits Pay Seventh Highest Taxes In The World

Thu, 16 Jun 2011

Britain’s high and low earners pay some of the highest tax rates of all the major economies, new research has revealed.

A study of 19 countries by chartered accountants UHY Hacker Young, one of the UK's Top 20 accounting and auditing firms, found people earning less than £15,242 a year are being taxed at the seventh highest rate in the world, as were those earning more than £121,900 per annum.

It showed that Britons who earn £15,242 or less a year only get to just 83.2 per cent of their income .

In comparison, workers earning the same amount per annum in Dubai get to keep 100 of their earnings ( Dubai has not income tax), those in Ireland 95.7 per cent and workers in Japan and the US around 90 per cent of the money they earn.

The only leading economies to tax their lowest-earners more are Germany, France, India, Italy, Estonia and Mexico.

Meanwhile, high earners in the UK take home just 60.9 per cent of their salary after tax, which is considerably less than the 87 per cent they would keep in Russia and the 80.4 per cent they would retain in Egypt.

The worst affected high earners are those in Italy, who are only allowed to keep 54.1 per cent of their income.

Commenting on the findings, Mark Giddens, private client partner of UHY in the UK, said: "The 50 per cent tax rate on people earning more than £150,000 a year, combined with increases in national insurance, has undoubtedly made the UK less attractive to high earners."

"Many of these people will be highly skilled and they are usually very mobile ."
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