Bankers 'let down' as tax makes London most expensive city

LONDON: The UK government's decision to raise the top rate of income tax will leave residents earning more than 1 million pounds ($1.6 million) a year worse off than they would be in any of the world's other major financial centers.

"People feel let down," Nick Bacon, a London-based financial services tax partner at accounting firm KPMG, said in a telephone interview. "They thought that the UK could always be relied on as being tax-friendly."

The UK government will raise the top rate of income tax to 50 percent in April, making London more expensive for residents earning 1 million pounds a year than New York or Hong Kong, according to KPMG estimates. A London banker on that amount will pay 491,278 pounds in income tax and social security payments from April, a third more than in Hong Kong and 58,500 pounds more than in New York, the data show.