Top 1% of UK wage-earners pay 25% of all income tax [View all]

[dipsydoodle]

The top 1 percent of wage-earners in Britain will pay almost one-quarter of the country’s income taxes this year, according to a study by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

By contrast, the Daily Telegraph paper pointed out, during the late 1970s (a period of UK history associated with “super-taxes”), the top one percent paid only 11 per cent of all the tax revenues.

The latest data, analyst suggest, reflect how “the rich had got richer over the last three decades, while the tax burden on them had increased substantially in recent years.”

Just two years ago, during the 2008-2009 tax period, it required 648,000 of the wealthiest taxpayers to pay 25 percent of total tax revenues.

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/112266/20110214/uk-taxes.htm

That's from a year ago and from discussions on our tv news here in the UK today the projection is looking to be correct. That gives rise to a paradox - if their earnings are lowered then how is the shortfall made up elsewhere ?

I cannot equate this to the USA whose tax system I simply do not understand.