The Commission on Living Standards reports that :
Only 12p of every £1 of UK GDP now goes to wages in the bottom half of households, down 25% in the past three decades.
Incomes of low- to middle-income households grew by just 0.3% a year from 2003 to 2008, even when the economy grew by 1.4% a year.
On current trends, a working-age household in the middle of the income distribution looks likely to have a disposable income in 2020 3% lower than it was it was in 2008. The figures for those in the bottom 10% of households are far worse, with a projected real-terms decline of 15%.
Between 2003 and 2008 average income among the top 0.1% grew by 65% in real terms, at an annual rate of 13.4%.
Meanwhile the Guardian elsewhere reports that the richest 1,000 people in Britain have seen their wealth increase by £155bn since the crisis began – more than enough to pay off the whole government deficit of £119bn at a stroke.
Anyone earning over £1m a year can look forward to a £42,000 tax cut in the spring, while firms have been rewarded with a 2% cut in corporation tax to 24%. A new incentive for British multinationals to move their operations inbusiness to overseas tax havens would, according to accountants KPMG offer an "effective UK tax rate of 5.5%" from 2014.
Four US companies – Amazon, Facebook, Google and Starbucks – have paid just £30m tax on sales of £3.1bn over the last four years, according to a Guardian analysis. Apple is estimated to have avoided over £550m in tax on more than £2bn worth of sales in Britain by channelling business through Ireland, while Starbucks has paid no corporation tax in Britain for the last three years.
The Tory MP and tax lawyer Charlie Elphicke estimates 19 US-owned multinationals are paying an effective tax rate of 3% on British profits, instead of the standard rate of 26%. It's all entirely legal, of course. The total tax gap between what's owed and collected has been estimated by Richard Murphy of Tax Research UK at £120bn a year: £25bn in legal tax avoidance, £70bn in fraudulent tax evasion and £25bn in late payments. Revenue and Customs' own last guess of £35bn has been widely recognised as a serious underestimate.
Compare those figures against the £18bn in welfare cuts planned for this parliamnet – or the £1.2bn estimated annual benefit fraud bil.
In Greece, authorities arrested the journalist who published the names of more than 2,059 wealthy Greeks with funds hidden in Swiss bank accounts has been arrested on charges of releasing private data. "I did nothing other than what a journalist is obliged to do. I revealed the truth that they were hiding," said Vaxevanis in a video, where he defended his decision to publish the private data. "If anyone is accountable before the law then it is those ministers who hid the list, lost it and said it didn't exist. I only did my job. I am a journalist and I did my job," he added. "Tomorrow in parliament they will vote to cut 100-200 euros in pay for the Greek civil servant, for the Greek worker while at the same time most of the 2,000 people on the list appear to be evading tax by secretly sending money to Switzerland."
Only 12p of every £1 of UK GDP now goes to wages in the bottom half of households, down 25% in the past three decades.
Incomes of low- to middle-income households grew by just 0.3% a year from 2003 to 2008, even when the economy grew by 1.4% a year.
On current trends, a working-age household in the middle of the income distribution looks likely to have a disposable income in 2020 3% lower than it was it was in 2008. The figures for those in the bottom 10% of households are far worse, with a projected real-terms decline of 15%.
Between 2003 and 2008 average income among the top 0.1% grew by 65% in real terms, at an annual rate of 13.4%.
Meanwhile the Guardian elsewhere reports that the richest 1,000 people in Britain have seen their wealth increase by £155bn since the crisis began – more than enough to pay off the whole government deficit of £119bn at a stroke.
Anyone earning over £1m a year can look forward to a £42,000 tax cut in the spring, while firms have been rewarded with a 2% cut in corporation tax to 24%. A new incentive for British multinationals to move their operations inbusiness to overseas tax havens would, according to accountants KPMG offer an "effective UK tax rate of 5.5%" from 2014.
Four US companies – Amazon, Facebook, Google and Starbucks – have paid just £30m tax on sales of £3.1bn over the last four years, according to a Guardian analysis. Apple is estimated to have avoided over £550m in tax on more than £2bn worth of sales in Britain by channelling business through Ireland, while Starbucks has paid no corporation tax in Britain for the last three years.
The Tory MP and tax lawyer Charlie Elphicke estimates 19 US-owned multinationals are paying an effective tax rate of 3% on British profits, instead of the standard rate of 26%. It's all entirely legal, of course. The total tax gap between what's owed and collected has been estimated by Richard Murphy of Tax Research UK at £120bn a year: £25bn in legal tax avoidance, £70bn in fraudulent tax evasion and £25bn in late payments. Revenue and Customs' own last guess of £35bn has been widely recognised as a serious underestimate.
Compare those figures against the £18bn in welfare cuts planned for this parliamnet – or the £1.2bn estimated annual benefit fraud bil.
In Greece, authorities arrested the journalist who published the names of more than 2,059 wealthy Greeks with funds hidden in Swiss bank accounts has been arrested on charges of releasing private data. "I did nothing other than what a journalist is obliged to do. I revealed the truth that they were hiding," said Vaxevanis in a video, where he defended his decision to publish the private data. "If anyone is accountable before the law then it is those ministers who hid the list, lost it and said it didn't exist. I only did my job. I am a journalist and I did my job," he added. "Tomorrow in parliament they will vote to cut 100-200 euros in pay for the Greek civil servant, for the Greek worker while at the same time most of the 2,000 people on the list appear to be evading tax by secretly sending money to Switzerland."
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