No, that doesn't sound credible. However much you'd like to think that "some countries" have masses of voters that like seeing rich people pay extra tax just for the sake of seeing them suffer, that's not what real-world people are like. People do like seeing well-funded government services, and it varies between countries how much overall taxation they're willing to have for that, and they may be happy to have the rich pay a higher proportion than they do in the UK, but the idea that in any democracy there would be significant votes lost over decreasing top rates of taxation, if that were to increase the overall government revenue, is just moonshine.joey wrote:Just because some other country has a different rate of taxation tells us nothing about where that country is on the Laffer curve.gryffron wrote: Ok. Point accepted. My figure came from a generic google search which may well be out of date. But even the current number is still WAY behind all/most of Europe. So arguing we are at the peak of the Laffer curve still looks unlikely.
It is quite possible, if not probable, that other countries, some of which are known for more socialist leanings than the U.K., have tax rates that are detrimental to the amount of tax collected because of the political consequences of reducing the rates.
When people have tried to find an optimal marginal tax rate for revenue, it's come out at over 70%. Some people do get that high - eg people in work but on Universal Credit at 70%, or the 62% example for someone moving above a £100k salary.