Multi-millionaire pop singer Adele has burnished her woman-of-the-people credentials by complaining about her tax bill. Speaking in an interview to Q Magazine, she blasted:
“I went to state school, I’m mortified to have to pay 50%. Trains are always late, most state schools are shit and I’ve gotta give you, like, four million quid? Are you having a laugh? When I got my tax bill in from [her album] 19 I was ready to go and buy a gun and randomly open fire.”
Obvious factual inaccuracies aside, perhaps Adele would like to explain how the prestigious BRIT School for Performing Arts she attended in South London would be funded were it not for taxes?
“The BRIT School is Britain’s only FREE Performing Arts and Technology School. It is an independent, state funded City College for the Technology of the Arts”
Along with other graduates, such as The Kooks, The Feeling, Amy Winehouse and Katie Melua, Adele owes a not inconsiderable amount to her state education, having herself described the school as “amazing”.
She has climbed the ladder of opportunity and, whilst it hangs by a thread, would rather cut it off completely.
18 Comments
What a selfish, cold hearted or totally stupid woman. I wish I was keeping the 50% she doesn’t give back to help those less fortunate – I would be more than happy to give 75% or more! She needs to remember that greed is something that loses you friends!
Hypocritical at a stretch, but still….
“Adele has burnished her woman-of-the-people credentials by complaining about her tax bill”
Lol yeah ‘the people’ are really going to hate her for that, just like they hate the rolling stones, david bowie, bad company, rod stewart , the two ronnies, noel coward, cat stevens, lewis hamilton etc…
Penalising success through high tax is so obviously a bad thing, ‘the people’ understand that, its only students and public sector workers who dont, for some reason…
And given that she used the “Get it Loud in libraries” scheme in Lancaster to promote herself she is truly a hypocrite!
A bank error in our favour, Adele now has to pay 75% in tax!
If you can’t see that there is something wrong with taking more than half of someone’s income in tax, well, I can only presume you don’t pay much tax.
So the poor poppet reckons she earns £8m p.a? If she worked 24 hours a day for 365 days a year, that would be over £900 per hour. I think she can afford a taxi, or a jet or something.
Pathetically weak contribution by the tax-dodging Fawkes.
I’d happily live in an income bracket that meant half of my income went in tax thank you very much!
There are people in the world who actually like paying tax, who appreciate that the services they use need to be paid for and are thankful for the fact that such things are organised by the government rather than by some money-grabbing imbecile hell bent on maximising their personal income, who is totally unaccountable to the people who actually need those services to live day to day. @Fawkes – so what you are basically saying is that the more you have, the greedier you get, and that’s OK. Vile.
I take it you’d all be happy with her campaigning to pay less tax if she had gone to private school, would you?
No, ah, so it’s a complete red herring.
Jon
Ridiculous comment. If you earn 20k/year you may lose 5k of it. If she was allowed to pay the same 25% tax rate on her 1m (for example), she’d be paying 250k – and would probably be contributing more to the tax system in 1 year than you would in your entire life.
How is it “vile” to question why, despite this, she and others should be forced to pay not only more tax, which is fair, but also a higher percentage of their earnings at tax, which is nothing more than a punishment for being a higher earner?
Rob – If she’d been privately educated then the litany of other reasons why high earners should pay more tax (whether you agree with them or not) would be trotted out. It just so happens that Adele has managed to provide an extra-special reason for people to challenge her objections to her tax bill.. and it would be wrong not pull her up on that.
For all that might be wrong with taxation/spending, here is an example of a state-funded facility doing exactly what it is supposed to do, and helping to pay for itself, through raised tax reciepts, in the process. If there are to be discussions about the issue of higher taxation then these examples are relevant, and Adele (and those who sympathise with her without really thinking about things) maybe need to step back and connect some dots before ranting about how the Romans never did anything for them.
Most people in the theatrical profession pay their taxes via an accountant….who earn quite large sums saving “The Artists” hugh amounts of taxes by finding little loop holes that the general public cannot use even if found….most things for “Artistes” can be claimed as expenses: clothes, cosmetics, taxis,
hotels, in some cases even phone bills!….so if Adele considers she is paying to much tax…she should change her accountant….he is obviously not doing his job properly. And stop winging Adele if your earning the money pay your dues. Without tax payers people less fortunate would be in an even worse state than they already are….and is it not good to GIVE SOMETHING BACK.
No Chris, Jon’s comment isn’t ridiculous. You haven’t engaged with the question of desert. Are you seriously telling me that Adele *deserves* to earn an enormous proportion more than a teacher, a nurse or even a decent lawyer? Wealth isn’t earned purely by individual effort, and it’s therefore ridiculous to start screeching about “punishment”, “theft” in this uber-Thatcherite way.
As for Fawkes, you’re the definition of a parasite, earning a living by muckraking about others. So don’t you dare to start issuing forth any kind of moral judgment. Climb back into the dung.
I think it’s possible, just reading this small excerpt, that she’s saying she might be willing to pay that much tax, if the services the state provides were actually decent ones. I totally agree on state schools, I went to 4, they were all decent schools, but the last 4 years at a private school (on a scholarship I would add before I get a mountain of personal attacks) just doesn’t compare. It is literally worlds ahead. Other developed countries manage to provide high quality efficient services yet somehow we don’t in this country. Actually, correct that, we provide very good healthcare on relatively few resources, that is one of the few government services which it is worth crowing about. But schools, public transport, even our defence systems (which are high quality but an awful lot more expensive than most other countries) are all public services we pay a lot of money for but get rather little for in return. I would happily pay high levels of tax if we got high levels of public service in return. At present we don’t so I don’t disagree people who say we either should pay less tax, or should get better public services for our money.
Another torn-faced cow that joins the pantheon of shite that masquerades as art.
I would happily pay her back-tax if she promised to desist from producing the inane, self-pitying drivel she reagrds as music.
If you can’t live off of a few million a year, die in a fire you fucking cunt.
A progressive tax system means one where the more you earn, the more you pay. It may be a blunt instrument, but it is the fairest way of ironing out the grossest inequalities that our system creates.
If you include indirect taxation I reckon the poorest pay the greatest contribution in terms of perecentage of income.
I can’t believe the audacity of some people. Yes, the BRIT helped get her where she is and she should feel bloody fortunate to be earning enough to have to pay 50%.
I remember watching Question Time once. The boss of homeless charity Shelter was on there. He said he felt privileged to be earning enough to put him on the highest tax bracket. Real talk from a man who was once homeless.
So although Adele was not in that bracket, she should remember her roots and be grateful for what she has.
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[...] * Poor old millionaire superstar Adele, eh? No sooner has the dust settled on the furore over her objections to being a higher-rate taxpayer, than she gets thrown into the vanguard of another of those putative [...]