LETTER: Fat cats invest

LETTER:

Fat cats invest

Sir: G A C Garner (letter, 18 August) wonders what the fat cats do with all the cream. I can tell you what they do with some of it.

They invest it in PEPs, Tessas and pension schemes, all of which give some sort of tax relief. Of course, one person's tax break is another person's tax burden. So G A C Garner on his pounds 50,000 a year or less is probably delighted to learn that he is subsidising the investment portfolios of people who have incomes 10 or more times as big as his own.

Since it appears to be acceptable to means-test the unfortunate before we give them taxpayers' money, should not we also means-test the fortunate before we dole out to them? I would suggest that, like the unfortunate, they should claim their tax refunds fortnightly, by signing a piece of paper which says, like the benefit claims form, that they may go to prison if they say anything which is untrue.

W J HYDE

Offham,

Kent