Why did the banking super tax fail?

Alastair Darling, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, today revealed that in his opinion the banking super tax issue by the former UK government has failed. Despite the fact there had been hopes that this particular tax, on bonuses over £25,000, would bring in significant tax income for the UK treasury it appears that it was not as successful as had been hoped. So why did the UK banking super tax fail?

The truth is that there are many ways around the banking super tax which would effectively delay any payments until after the one off tax situation has expired and employees would then be able to receive significant "discretionary" payments. The government was well aware of this but in many ways the banking tax was nothing more than a public relations exercise to try and appease the UK population. There is an argument to say that it was fairly successful in this particular target, but ultimately it came and went and had very little impact upon the UK government's income.

Alastair Darling, along with many other politicians, believes that we will not see a repeat of the banking super tax in the short to medium term even if the UK financial arena is still public enemy number one.