Tuesday, August 10, 2010

If You Tax Something, You Get Less of It

In this previous CD post, it was reported that world-class Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt won't be competing in this weekend's Aviva London Grand Prix because of a new U.K. tax rule that imposes a top rate of income tax of 50 percent on athletes, not just on the income earned in the U.K., but also on a proportion of their worldwide sponsorship and endorsement income. 

Now it looks like some of the leading professional golfers aren't so sure they want to play in this year's Ryder Cup, scheduled to take place in Wales in October.  The European Tour's director of public relations said today that the tax rule was "seriously hampering our efforts."

You have to wonder, couldn't they have predicted this would happen? 

HT: Chris Silva

Update: Tiger Woods’ reluctance to accept a Ryder Cup wild card may in part be due to a £1m tax bill he could face by playing.

7 Comments:

At 8/10/2010 1:57 PM, Blogger Unknown Blogger said...

If they assume that we're too dumb to take care of ourselves, then they must also assume that we're too dumb to understand tax rules so we'll just continue to work so that we can pay our taxes.

 
At 8/10/2010 4:32 PM, Blogger Eric H said...

....but this tax goes to 11....

 
At 8/10/2010 4:34 PM, Blogger Benjamin Cole said...

Let's tax pollution.

 
At 8/10/2010 6:31 PM, Blogger morganovich said...

let's tax politicians.

 
At 8/10/2010 7:49 PM, Blogger W.E. Heasley said...

Human capital and capital are mobile. Human capital and capital will, generally, migrate to the lowest tax environment and reasonable regulatory environment.

Apparently this axiom does not appear in the Keynesian, neo-Keynesian, or new-Keynesian play book. Go figure.

 
At 8/10/2010 8:10 PM, Blogger Paul said...

Let's tax Benji.

 
At 8/10/2010 8:33 PM, Blogger W.E. Heasley said...

Paul said...

“Let's tax Benji.”

Benji needs to spend some quality time with Richard Epstein.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home