I have a simple solution to help keep the super-rich happy with their tax bills while keeping their enormous wealth safely stored offshore and allowing them possibly to spend more time in the UK (Manchester United Muslim fans group calls on co-owner Jim Ratcliffe to quit, 19 September). They could insist that any company they earn their wealth from commits to paying all UK staff a decent living wage.
For this small compromise from the billionaires (who will still play the money markets and profit from others’ hard labour), the government could offer to reduce employers’ taxation costs by increasing the point at which low-paid people pay tax. Perhaps it could reduce national insurance payments for low-paid people, both employee and employer, thereby stopping the farce of the government paying income support to those on low incomes and then increasing taxation to fund it.
You might even argue that reducing taxation would steal the thunder from the shortsighted and status quo-enthused rightwing – possibly proving that the Labour party doesn’t have to tax to spend. What’s not to like?
Stephen Gillian
Shrewsbury, Shropshire
• What is the BBC up to, giving its Big Boss interview slot to Jim Ratcliffe, a man who loves his country so much that he moved his affairs to Monaco six years ago to avoid paying his fair share of tax? He thinks that immigration and benefits are at the heart of our problems, but I’m inclined to think that his noxious views contribute to the division that is scarring the nation.
Les Bright
Exeter
• Jim Ratcliffe has some gall, living as he does in a tax-free monarchical haven in the south of France. Does he ever connect with the ordinary people – some of whom still work at the football club he purports to support – who don’t have the luxury of being a multibillionaire paying less income tax than the working poor of Manchester do? Where is his sense of responsibility or awareness of the national interest? Words can hurt both individuals and nations, and for one so powerful, should be chosen with great care.
Steve Brown
Fontenay-sous-Bois, France
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