HC Deb 20 July 1988 vol 137 cc595-6W
Mr. Alison

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what would have been the yield in a full year, under the tax regime applying in the year 1987–88, if the top tax rate of 60 per cent. had been raised to 100 per cent., on the assumption that those with incomes liable to taxation at 60 per cent. had taken no precautionary or offsetting steps to mitigate the extra impost.

Mr. Lawson

On the stated assumptions, the yield for a full year at 1987–88 income levels of raising the top rate of income tax from 60 per cent. to 100 per cent. is estimated at about £2 billion.

The calculation is based on a projection to 1987–88 income levels of the 1985–86 survey of personal incomes and the figure is therefore provisional. No account is taken of any behavioural changes that might result from such a measure, which would of course turn the notional additional yield into an actual reduction in yield.

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