57% income tax rate

The top earners in the UK are paying more than half of their earnings to the government in taxes.

Patrick Minford, professor of economics at Cardiff University, said the chancellor’s ‘tax-and-spend policies’ had pushed the overall marginal tax rate on Britain’s highest earners to 57.1%.

Average taxpayers are not much better off, paying around 48.5% once national insurance contributions, value added tax and excise duties are added to income tax.

Lets wait and see how much higher tax rates go when Gordon Brown presents his next Budget on 22 March.