Because the first one didn’t work.
Several weeks ago, I reported that Britain’s plan to raise additional government revenue by levying higher income taxes was a failure. British officials were shocked that hiking the rates of the wealthiest citizens to 50% resulted in less tax collected.
As CNBC reports,
Britain has already hiked taxes on the rich to 50 percent but amid a weak economy and reports of wealth flight, the tax was ratcheted down in April to 45 percent
Now, in full panic money-grab mode, the newest lucrative idea is to collect an “emergency wealth tax” — which taxes not the income, but the wealth, of Britain’s most successful folks.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg explained the decision:
He told the Guardian that unless the country “hardwired fairness” into the budget, “I don’t think the process will be either socially or politically sustainable or acceptable.”
Stop and re-read that again. Hardwired fairness into the budget.
How can directly taking extra money from one segment of the population in order to pay for the spending and policy failures of a group of officials, possibly be fair?
No matter how you spin it, explain it, try to justify it, this is legal plunder — pure and simple. Bastiat was right.