Monday, June 21, 2010

High Taxes Forced Michael Caine to Leave UK

'I left the country for eight years when tax was put up to 82 per cent. You didn't get the 82 per cent tax from me for eight years. You didn't get any tax at all from me for the next eight years,' he told the BBC.
'Apart from that, a quarter of a billion dollars of movies were made outside this country instead of inside it which is just from one stupid, loud-mouth moronic actor. Imagine what is happening to companies, proper companies, who then disappear. It's no good.'
The Oscar winner, 77, added he once told Tony Blair 'you can't tax people who have enough money for air fare' because they would just leave.
However, he admitted he would not quit Britain for a second time because he would not want to be separated from his three grandchildren.
Sir Michael, who is worth an estimated £45million, spent eight years living in the U.S. in the 70s after income tax hit 82 per cent but returned when Margaret Thatcher came to power and cut the rate again. 
He is a vocal critic of high taxes and vociferously attacked Labour last year after the top rate was hiked to 50 per cent, threatening to go back to America if they rose any higher.
At the time, he said: 'You know how much they made out of that high taxation all those years ago? Nothing. But they sent a mass of incredible brains to America.
'We've got 3.5million layabouts laying about on benefits, and I'm 76, getting up at 6am to go to work to keep them. Let's get everybody back to work so we can save a couple of billion and cut tax, not keep sticking it on.
'You're saying to poor people "let's tax those rich gits" and I understand that. You slice up the cake, give everyone a chance, but don't destroy the people that are making the bloody cake.'

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