Andrew Lloyd Weber on what happens when you soak the rich

ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER: The last thing this country needs is a pirate raid on the wealth creators who still dare navigate our stormy waters
(…And don’t lynch me as a rich b*****d flying a kite for his own cause – I really fear an exodus of talent)

Here’s the truth. The proposed top rate of income tax is not 50 per cent. It is 50 per cent plus 1.5 per cent national insurance paid by employees plus 13.3 per cent paid by employers. That’s not 50 per cent. Two years from now, Britain will have the highest tax rate on earned income of any developed country.

I write this article because I fear the inevitable exodus of the talent that can dig us out of the hole we find ourselves in. It is inevitable, given that other countries are bidding for entrepreneurs.

This is exactly what has happened in a smaller scale in New Jersey. When you include the state income tax, the property and school taxes, and the expenses small business owners have to incur, people are beating a path to the door.

New Jersey has lost a net 75,000 residents. When you open New Jersey Mag, ads for Pennsylvania and Delaware repeat the message that “come live here, you’ll save money.” People and businesses have fled the state, and by now the largest employer in NJ is the government bureaucracy. The state is broke.

That’s exactly that will happen to Britain and the US on a national scale once the tax increases “for the rich” kick in.