NICK Clegg has won his battle for a new "tycoon tax" to stop the mega-rich coughing up peanuts to the nation's coffers by using crafty accounting
By Tim Newton Dunn in The Sun
Originally published by East Midlands Liberal Democrats
The blitz on hundreds of multi-millionaires who currently pay as little as five per cent tax will see a new minimum EVERY worker apart from the very poorest must stump up.
Those failing to part with at least 20 per cent of their income - no matter how they come by it - will face criminal prosecution under new rules to be announced by Chancellor George Osborne in his Budget next week.
Thousands of other wealthy tax cheats who dodge paying their full 40 per cent will also be targeted.
The move is a triumph for Deputy PM Mr Clegg - after the Lib Dem leader proposed the idea last week.
It was agreed yesterday during a midday conference call involving him, PM David Cameron, the Chancellor and his Lib Dem deputy Danny Alexander. Painstaking details on how the rules will work are still being thrashed out by Treasury officials.
The crackdown will not involve a precise threshold - but will have the effect of leaving everyone apart from the very lowest earners paying between a fifth and a third of income in tax.
A senior Whitehall source said: "What we're doing is turning a huge amount of tax avoidance into tax evasion by making it all illegal, and getting potentially billions more into the Revenue's coffers at the same time."