"Against high bonuses"

Tim W's musings have got a good debate going, which I sparked off with this:

"It’s simple.

The people who lose most from silly bonus payments are shareholders. As long as we have a daft tax system whereby you are at a disadvantage if you own shares directly and get tax breaks if you own them via a pension fund/unit trust, then people will do the latter (hence the decline in small shareholders and the rise in the % of quoted shares that are owned by ‘institutions’).

These institutions are in cahoots with Big Management at UK plc and together they rip off the little guys and nod each others’ salary packages through.

Ergo, the solution is to reduce tax breaks for pensions and at the same time reduce tax burden on direct share ownership (get rid of Stamp Duty, CGT and higher rate tax on dividends, for example) and there’ll be a lot more small shareholders kicking up a stink at AGMs and refusing to approve directors’ salary packages.

That’s that fixed. Next."

Former Tory seconding, Kay Tie opposing, as ever.