Britain's taxes among highest in world, accountants say People earning over £150,000 in Britain have been hit by a 50 per cent tax rate, although this will fall to 45 per cent next April. Mark Giddens, head of private client services at UHY Hacker Young, said: "The tax burden on the UK's highest earners has become heavier and heavier over the past few years. The cut of the 50 per cent top rate of tax to 45 per cent can't come soon enough for the UK's highly skilled, highly motivated and highly mobile directors and entrepreneurs. Mr Giddens said that the tax regime in Britain is overly complicated. The complex way in which governments layered on the tax burden on high earners also shows how complicated the UK's personal tax system has become. High, complex and opaque taxes are making the UK uncompetitive internationally," he said. He said that the cut in the top tax rate to 45 per cent will "move the UK back towards the mainstream" of other countries. However he said that it will leave the tax burden of the highest earners in the UK above that of the US, Australia and Japan. An official analysis of the impact of the 50p rate, which Gordon Brown introduced in April 2010, found that it has raised about £1 billion, only a third of the amount expected. The level of tax avoidance as high earners dodged the 50p rate was so great that HM Revenue and Customs predicted that reducing the levy to 45 per cent would only cost the Exchequer about £100 million. The lowest earners - people on £16,000 a year - keep 84 per cent of their income, UHY said. This ranks Britain as the eleventh most generous tax regime out of the countries looked at.