Ukip's 'Blue-Collar' Tax Plans Would Actually Help The Rich Most, Experts Warn

Ukip's new "blue-collar platform", offering policies like raising the point at which the 40p rate income tax kicks in to £45,000, has been panned as "windbaggery and spin" that would end up helping the rich most.

Tim Aker, Ukip's head of policy, said that the party wanted to "stop George Osborne's fiscal drag for middle earners". He also indicated that Ukip would abolish income tax for those on the minimum wage.

However, experts told the Huffington Post UK that the rich would benefit more than "blue-collar" workers and that the proposals would cost up to £20 billion, resulting in deeper spending cuts or tax rises being needed to pay for them.

Former Treasury official James Meadway, now senior economist at the New Economics Foundation, said the proposals would be a "social catastrophe" if implemented.

"Moving the top rate threshold up will clearly benefit those at the top: for comparison, if you earn over £45,000 a year, you’re in the top 11% of earners. So they will be the only ones benefitting from this," he said.

"However, they will also benefit from moving the threshold at the bottom, since this will affect the tax that everyone pays – except the very poorest, already below the threshold, who obviously already do not pay any tax!

"What they’re proposing is a hugely expensive means to make the tax system even more unfair. The “blue-collar” stuff is just so much windbaggery and spin – this is a tax proposal that will benefit the richest most, whilst slashing the amount of money available for the public services we all need."

Scrapping income tax for minimum wage earners is estimated to cost up to £13.75 billion, while raising the 40p tax rate to £45,000 could cost as much as £5.5 billion.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/08/21/ukip-tax-plans-slammed_n_5697311.html?1408624125&utm_hp_ref=uk

What a surprise! Here's the far-right formula:

1) Back the wealthy and powerful, so they'll look out for you.

2) Assume that we in the unwashed masses are full of hatred for other races or people who are different from us in general, and espouse/exploit that hate to win elections.