TAXES: Cutting the Price of Fame

It might be enough to persuade Mick Jagger, David Bowie and other celebrated tax exiles to come home to Britain. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's government took another step last week in its campaign to simplify British taxes and reduce the top rate. The latest budget calls for a sweeping tax reform similar to legislation passed in the U.S. in 1986. Under Thatcher's plan, six tax brackets, in which rates range from 27% to 60%, will be reduced to two: individuals with taxable incomes of (pounds)19,300 (about $35,500) a year or less will pay 25%, those who earn more, 40%. Though Thatcher has brought the top tax rate down from a peak of 83% in 1979, not everyone is pleased. When Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson presented the budget in the House of Commons last week, members of the opposition Labor Party interrupted him by chanting, "Rich man's budget," causing a ten-minute suspension of the session.