Denying scots the same tax cuts as England will not sock it to the ‘super wealthy’.
No, the people who will get a fiscal black eye are higher-earning members of the middle classes.
By one calculation, earn £50,000 and you will be almost £1,900 worse off. That’s next year’s family holiday gone in a flash.
if £50,000 is sturgeon’s definition of the super wealthy, she has not merely lost touch with ordinary scots, she has lost touch with reality.
People on £50,000 a year are not cigarchomping capitalist caricatures. They are head teachers, police inspectors and lead nurses. They already pay through the nose, and for unimpressive public services, too.
why should they stick around? some families will be asking themselves that very question. it is one thing being used as the scottish Government’s unlimited debit card but quite another to be traduced as the ‘super wealthy’ into the bargain.
it’s up to scotland if it wants to remain wedded to punitive, uncompetitive tax rates, but those on the receiving end are under no obligation to stay and take it.
Unless its tax rates come into line with England, scotland faces a brain drain. That would be disastrous for the NHs, small business and jobs. The situation is even more urgent than before because of the Chancellor’s new investment zones, which will tempt employers with zero business rates and no National insurance on earnings under £50,270.
The chasm between low-tax England and high-tax scotland isn’t only in earnings. The Chancellor has scrapped stamp duty on properties under £250,000 and raised the first-time buyer threshold to £425,000.
Buy a £350,000 home in England and you’ll pay 5 per cent in tax. Buy the same home in scotland and you’ll pay 10 per cent.
These are serious times and serious challenges. They call for a serious leader. Nicola sturgeon should stop tweeting like a student Marxist and start behaving like the 15-year veteran government minister that she is.
Reduce the tax burden on middle-class scots, First Minister, and let us finally go for growth.