UK announces one-time tax on bankers' bonuses

Travelingsales, not sure of your point. It's not the banks being taxed, it's just the bonuses they're paying to their top greedy-pigs against all logic and moral reasoning. Isn't it? So why would the banks be forced to pay less money to the lower ranking staff? If they're so worried about foreigners undercutting their margins then they shouldn't pay such obscenely huge amounts to a bunch of idiots who almost bankrupted the business.

I have to agree with Thumbcatch but the Times sums it up better than I could:

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/pbr/article6951023.ece

...and...if they don't like it, then let them p*ss off to Switzerland.

Thumbcatch - It's because these bonuses were earned on bumper profits that were a direct result of the government bailouts. All that free and easy money sloshing around - and all those companies desparate to get their hands on it - meant investment banks could clean up in the post-crisis wreckage, even thought they had a big hand in causing the crisis in the first place!

And the fact that one or two of their competitors had gone down the toilet? Well, that just helped them grab a bigger slice of the cake.

That's why it's a 'windfall' tax - and entirely justified in my opinion.

Too true. Another way for Labour to wreck the UK economy and the competitiveness of our banks. And I find it odd that bankers are somehow not seen as taxpayers - even prior to this populist stunt the government took 40% of all the bonuses anyway. So think how much money these people contributed to the UK over the last few decades.

I am not saying that the banks were not at fault but the vast majority of people within the banks were not. And, if we want to penalize people for incompetence I say to The Chancellor to look no further than the useless git living next door to him and his mirror. Never in the field of human finance has so much been lost for so many by so few.......

Good news for non-UK banks. Either the UK banks will underpay their staff, in which case the staff will be hired away, or they will be overtaxed, in which case the foreigners can udercut their margins.

Scrote,

more damage than the bankers caused by creating the collapse of capitalism?

Nothing anyone will do will come close to that damage. Wake up!

The government will take 50% of the bonus pool and the recipients will pay another 50% in income taxes, so the total tax rate is 75%.

This kind of erratic, grudge-based approach to running the economy will cause serious damage in the long term. Hopefully they will all be thrown out next year.

It should have been more, but then again, this is just another act of economic vandalism by the Labour party.

bdlego: Why don't people get hyped over politicians pay, businesses while in office, and assets??

21st century bankstering is just government subsidized organized crime. Forget about tax, there should be ZERO bonuses when somebody works for a bankrupt, socialist, saved by the government bank. Lay them off and let them take their supposedly brilliant banking "skills" elsewhere.

Great idea, while we're at it why don't we do a one-time 50% tax on the assets of politicians.

50% tax on bonuses

Only? I was hoping for 99%. Or at least 95%.

Traitors!