Dirty little trick (From The Northern Echo)

Dirty little trick

3:06pm Friday 10th February 2012 in Letters

JM GOWLAND writes that people should not complain about the tax they pay on income, as a higher rate simply reflects higher earnings (HAS, Feb 8). If only this was the case.

In 2010, Tony Blair, late of the parish of Sedgefield, “earned” £12m and paid tax of £315,000 which I calculate as being around 2.6 per cent.

On my last monthly salary before I retired I paid nearly 23 per cent of my salary in income tax and National Insurance.

Leona Helmsley, an American real estate entrepreneur once infamously remarked: “We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.” Rather crudely put, but true.

Incidentally I believe that many bankers’ bonuses are paid tax-free.

VJ Connor, Bishop Auckland.