Monthly Archives: April 2012

The UK government’s mantra, in these times of high unemployment, inflation and low growth, is “We’re all In this together.” And as public-sector spending cuts begin to bite, the government has been keen to show that they expect the very wealthy to do their part. Hence last month’s Budget included, alongside a modest reduction in the top rate of personal income tax, an emphasis on tightening tax loopholes available to wealthy people, particularly in relation to stamp duty on very expensive residential properties. It also included a new ceiling on tax relief for the wealthy: from next year, tax relief above £50,000 in any one year will be capped at 25 percent of income in that year. This would limit, say, a person earning $10 million from claiming tax reliefs of more than £2.5 million; or a person earning £500,000 from claiming tax reliefs of more than £125,000. At first glance, at least to those 99 percent of Britons who earn much less (the UK’s median income is £25,000 a year), this seemed to provide still generous room for tax relief to high-income earners.