Sorrell brands decision to scrap 50p tax rate a ‘mistake’
Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of advertising giant WPP, has waded into the top rate of tax row by claiming that George Osborne should be pocketing more of his £6.8m annual earnings.
Sorrell, who was recently on the wrong end of a shareholder rebellion over plans to award himself a 60% pay increase, believes that Osborne was wrong to slash the top rate of tax from 50p to 45p.
The advertising guru said: “It was a mistake to mess around with marginal rates at that time," he said, adding that they should have promised to reduce it "at some point" over the course of Parliament instead.
"In the long term I think it is necessary, but when the country is more capable of dealing with it, when the deficit is under more control."
However Sorrell balked at following the example set by Socialist President Francois Hollande in France, who is pushing through a 75% top tax rate for French citizens, believing that will lead to an ‘exodus’ of French companies and executives.
WPP recently announced its intent to move its headquarters back to the UK after switching to Ireland in 2008 to evade British corporation tax.