Inequality: Income and Wealth Debate

Full Debate: Read Full Debate
Department: HM Treasury

Inequality: Income and Wealth

Lord Eatwell Excerpts
Monday 11th March 2013

(11 years, 8 months ago)

Lords Chamber
Read Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Lord Eatwell Portrait Lord Eatwell
- Hansard - -

The noble Lord has made much in his Answer of the proportion of taxation paid by the highest earners. Is not the reason for this that their gross incomes are excessively high compared to those of others in our society?

Lord Deighton Portrait Lord Deighton
- Hansard - - - Excerpts

The noble Lord is correct that it is a simple question of arithmetic. At equal changes, they will make the greater contribution. However, if one looks at the distributional analysis—it is to the Government’s credit that at each fiscal event we lay out the distributional analysis, which is a great step forward—it shows that their increase is proportionally greater than the amounts they have.