MPs call for 90% tax on banker bonuses

Date: 14th July 2009

A selection of MPs have demanded bankers' bonuses be subject to a new 90 per cent tax, amid fears the banking industry is set to return to its pre-recession bonus culture.

Goldman Sachs' 5,500 London-based staff are set to earn an average of around £400,000 per person in a mixture of wages and bonus payouts when the company divulges its quarterly figures today (July 14th).

Labour MP Lindsay Hoyle, one of the MPs backing the tax motion, said that it was unfair for bankers to be rewarded with "suitcases of money" and that the 90 per cent levy should be implemented in all cases where bonus payouts exceed 15 per cent of salary.

He added that, with the country yet to make a full economic recovery, the bonuses were "unjustified" and that "no lessons seem to have been learned".

Chancellor Alistair Darling will not support such a levy, but has insisted that banks creating unnecessary risks as a result of their pay structures will be penalised accordingly.