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UK bonus tax comes under fire for 'failing'

The one-off levy on bonuses above £25,000, proposed by the former Labour government, has been criticised for its failure to rein in bankers' pay

The UK’s one-off bonus tax, designed by the previous Labour government, has come under fire for its failure to significantly alter bankers’ behaviour and rein in their pay after it emerged that compensation levels had remained largely unchanged from the periods before the levy came into effect.

Financial News reported this week that the biggest banks in Europe and the US had paid the UK Treasury at least £3.07bn in tax on bonuses, around six times the original sum of £550m predicted by former Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling when he introduced the measure in December last year.

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