Labour lost because of Brexit, not because of policies. Populism won.
Also not really having a policy on brexit, and letting it be one of the issues the party fought inwardly about, made brexit a policy issue so it is hard to make the distinction that you do above: there are people who would have voted if a more direct stance against was taken.
(context: remain and Labour voter in all the key national polls in recent years, but they never managed to make themselves look better than "vaguely better one from a terrible set of options" even to the likes of me so convincing floating voters to swing that way was not going to happen)
Employer NI is 13.8%, but rarely counted as a tax on the worker (crazilly)
Of course plenty of people earning big bucks don't do it via PAYE, just take their money as far lower capital gains, split income amongst multiple people, leave income in businesses for longer, etc.
2017-2018 figures [0] and taxes [1]
Someone on 90%ile 45,500 pre tax, has a cost (including employer NI) of £50,616, and a net wage of £34,322, total tax of 32%
Someone on 95%ile 59,300 pre tax, has a cost (including employer NI) of £66,320, and a net wage of £42,413, total tax of 36%
Someone on 99%ile 116,000 pre tax, has a cost (including employer NI) of £130,845, and a net wage of £72,099, total tax of 45%
I believe Corbyn's income tax proposals were to increase the rate for 80k-150k to 45%. That would only affect the top 2.5% of income tax payers, but the person on the 99%ile above would pay an extra £1800 a year in tax. Their tax rate would change from 45% to 46%, hardly an earth shattering change.
That £1800 a year extra is about what the tories took off single mothers earning £60k when they introduced the child tax [2]
[0] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/percentile-points-f...
[1] https://listentotaxman.com/
[2] high income child benefit tax charge".
I agree with your point that your effective tax rate is always lower than your marginal tax rate - but anyone earning £100,000 who has asked themselves "How much of a bonus do I need to earn to pay for a £20,000 loft conversion" will have done a calculation like aries1980 has and winced.
Besides
100k income in 2009/10 (when Labour were last in power): Net income £65,312. 120k income in 2009/10: Net income £77,112.
Marginal tax 41%
100k income in 2019/20: Net income £66,539. 120k income in 2019/20: Net income £74,139
Marginal tax 62%
That's not even the top level. If you're a masters graduate on £50k with 2 kids your marginal tax is 75%.
There are many myths, that conservatives are good for the economy, that they don't have boom and bust, that the stock market does better, than employment does better, that taxes are lower for everyone, that taxes are lower for "rich" workers, that the country has less debt.
They're all myths, but they all seem to stick in the national psyche.
It is a cost of the employment. As I wrote above, it goes to the treasury and proportionate to the salary. It doesn't matter how we label it. Doesn't matter neither to the company's, nor the individual's taxation.
> Of course plenty of people earning big bucks don't do it via PAYE, just take their money as far lower capital gains
No, the people who earn big bucks do it in a non tax-resident way. They don't declare tax in the UK or any high-taxpaying region.
> That would only affect the top 2.5% of income tax payers
No, 1.6M people, the top 5%: https://www.ifs.org.uk/election/2019/article/labour-s-propos...
"The top 5% of income tax payers contribute half of all income tax revenues today." With the current level of digitalisation, there is only so much weight you can put on the most performant segment of the workforce before they pack and leave.
> Their tax rate would change from 45% to 46%, hardly an earth shattering change.
No, the former 45% would be higher than 50%, because it would have started from £125K, and they would introduce a 45% above £80K.
80k is between 97 and 98.
I also provided the breakdown of how much income tax, employer NI and employee NI is paid.
My high income friends tend to get their income from dividends and avoid NI completely. Only working schmucks pay NI.
You can choose to ignore the data if you want.
How do we know that the concerns were insincere? Well, Claire Fox spent twenty years in the Revolutionary Communist Party and supported IRA bombing of Warrington in the 90s, but has now been made a member of the UK's permanent unelected legislature, the House of Lords.
People will hate socialism if they're told to do so. Whereas Revolutionary Communist Party members can be promoted to baronetcy once they fall in line. Welcome to Britain.