Call time on tycoon tax dodgers in Budget for fairness says Clegg

The Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat leader used his closing speech to the party’s spring conference in Gateshead to call on the Chancellor to include “concrete” measures which will support lower earners in a “Budget for fairness”.

The move, which aides described as “raising the stakes” comes ahead of a crunch coalition Budget meeting today.

Over the weekend Mr Clegg floated plans to echo moves in the United States to set a floor on the amount the wealthiest pay on their overall income.

It is unclear if senior Lib Dem figures, such as Business Secretary Vince Cable, are supportive of those plans.

Close ally Lord Oakeshott, a former party Treasury spokesman, publicly declared his opposition to the scheme in a national newspaper yesterday.

The peer, who enjoyed a successful career in the City, called Mr Clegg’s plan a “superficially attractive measure that falls apart under scrutiny” which would “do nothing to deal with super-rich non-doms and non-residents”.

However the party leader scathingly denounced the comments from the conference stage yesterday. “The only person against the tycoon tax is one of our very own tycoons,” he said.

He added: “I want the Budget to show how we are anchoring this Government in the centre ground. Credible – but fair. The last Labour Budgets led our nation to the economic precipice.

“Fantasy Budgets issued by a party in denial, out of ideas and abdicating responsibility.

“This month’s coalition Budget will show the determination of both parties in Government to repair the public finances.

“Keep our economy safe and help working families. The last big tax-cutting Budget was in 1988.

“Nigel Lawson cut billions from the tax bills of the highest-paid workers: a Budget for the few, not for the many. But this year’s coalition Budget must be a Budget for fairness. Not an 80s Lawson Budget but a modern liberal Budget. Because we need a tax system for a nation pulling together, not being pulled apart.”

Mr Clegg, the Sheffield Hallam MP, hit out at rich individuals who seek to avoid paying tax as he insisted that next week’s Budget must tackle the issue.

He said: “Too often, rather than paying their dues to the nation the wealthy pay their accountants to get them out of it.

“Avoiding tax, minimising the amount they have to contribute – that’s the name of their game, boasting about the latest wheeze for moving an asset here, a property there, a loophole everywhere, all to make the tax bill lower.

“Let me tell you, few things make me angrier as the unemployed struggle to find work, as ordinary families struggle to make ends meet, as young people struggle to get on the housing ladder; the sight of the wealthiest scheming to keep their tax bill down to the bare minimum is frankly disgraceful, multimillionaires avoiding tax by moving their money around.

“So, we will call time on the tycoon tax dodgers and make sure everyone pays a fair level of tax.

“We’ve already raised capital gains tax, cut tax reliefs for the wealthiest, clamped down on tax avoidance at the top and we will go further.”

Lib Dem plans could include looking at the overall income of the wealthiest, including payouts from things like dividends and trust funds, then setting a minimum level of tax payable on the total. However proposals for a “mansion tax” are unlikely to get past the Conservatives.

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