P J Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 I didn't have a picture of Boris in the Thames <_< Allow me.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lt Kije Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 Inky As to your proposed tax system, As poor people spend a higher proportion of their wage on living, your system would hit them harder, A regressive system I think Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inky pete Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 So what? Pay for what you use. What's fairer than that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lt Kije Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 The poor will end up subsidising the rich to a greater extent than they do now, the rich will get even richer and the poor will know their place. You are extolling the virtues of a regressive tax tax system, one wonders what tax bracket your in inky. Their Is nothing fair about your tax system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inky pete Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 I'm a basic rate tax payer never likely to trouble the 40% tax band, but I believe in paying my own way. The current tax system massively subsidises the rich already. Billions upon billions of pounds are paid to the "poor" in the form of Tax Credits, Housing Benefit, and other means tested in-work benefits. This system allows - even encourages - employers to pay wages below what a normal family can live on, and to keep "poor" workers in low paid jobs. I frequently see colleagues decline to work overtime because of this, and I've even had colleagues actually turn down promotions which would have resulted in significant payrises because they'd then lose their Tax Credits etc. and end up worse off! The only people who actually benefit from this system of in-work benefits are the rich - business owners, business shareholders, and those with large pension funds invested in companies - because these taxpayer subsidies on low wages make their businesses artificially profitable. Profits which are reaped solely by the rich. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lt Kije Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 Your system does nothing to improve the plight of the poor inky, it would make their position worse, and the rich would be thanking you, as I said it is regressive and I'll thought out., How about every one pays a % of their wage, higher than they do now and scrap some of the more indirect taxes they have now!! Never been a fan of indirect taxes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inky pete Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 If there were no tax free allowances, tax credits, housing benefits etc. creating poverty traps and glass ceilings then I wouldn't mind that. I've never been a fan of raising tax thresholds with the aim of taking people out of the tax system altogether. I believe that EVERYONE should pay SOMETHING in order to remain as a stakeholder. "No representation without taxation" and all that. The rich would REALLY love you for it as well, because your flat rate %age would come out MUCH lower than the 40%, 45%, or 50% they currently pay on the bulk of their earnings - they'd also still have plenty of scope within any conceivable set of rules to manipulate their "wages" and minimise their tax liabilities. In addition, abolition of so called indiect taxes such as VAT, fuel duty, air passenger duty and the like would save the higher spending rich FAR more than it would save the poor. A flat rate %age on every pound earned when they'll always be scope for the top earners to hide or exempt some of their earnings, I thought you said you didn't like regressive tax regimes?????? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asperity Posted April 9, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 As VAT is an EU competence, the government wouldn't be allowed to scrap it! :wink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
observer Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 Hows about, scrapping everything, and really getting into "every man for himself" - think the anarchists would love it?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inky pete Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 As VAT is an EU competence, the government wouldn't be allowed to scrap it! :wink: In the final analysis, the EU can only rule on things that governments allow it to. And governments are ultimately answerable to their electorates. Well past time they were all reminded of that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asperity Posted April 9, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 So long as we stay members of the EUSSR we have to abide by the rules they make such as the Directive on VAT, 2006/112: 2006/112 <_< Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inky pete Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 So long as we stay members of the EUSSR we have to abide by the rules they make such as the Directive on VAT, 2006/112: 2006/112 <_< Yep, the key is in your first 5 words. Alternatively, once enough countries have got tired enough of Franco/German dictatorship there'll be enough votes round the table to force a return to the Common Market which was all we ever voted for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lt Kije Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 Asp Did we or did we not have VAT before we joined the EU??? A simple yes or no will do We have lots of indirect taxes we could look at Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inky pete Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 Asp Did we or did we not have VAT before we joined the EU??? As you know Corporal, yes we did. Our elected and accountable government also had the power to set it at whatever level they wanted - or to abolish it altogether. Abolishing indirect taxes such as VAT was your suggestion anyway - does that mean that you'd be in favour of us leaving the EU in order to implement your plan? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asperity Posted April 9, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 The answer of course is yes because it was introduced in 1974 as part of the price we had to pay for joining the COMMON MARKET. I have added a link to your favourite "news"paper, the Grauniad, although I could have chosen any one of the others: Grauniad I shouldn't have to explain that the Common Market came a long time before the EU. Or do I? :wink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazj Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 and all thanks to Brown and Bliar and the rest of the Liebour party for signing us up to be members of the biggest gang of crooks since Ronnie Biggs and the Great Train Robbery Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lt Kije Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 The Uk got VAT in 1973, before that in the UK it had been called purchase tax,. Purchase tax as it was called was nothing to do with the EU. Anyway back to subject, If I had my way I would go to a more Scandinavian tax and benefit system. I would not mind the higher taxes, The young and old are well looked after. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asperity Posted April 9, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 The Uk got VAT in 1973, before that in the UK it had been called purchase tax,. Purchase tax as it was called was nothing to do with the EU. :grin: More fool me for relying on your favourite newsrag Lt Kije. The UK joined the Common Market in 1973 and introduced VAT as a direct result of that. You are perfectly correct that before then we had purchase tax, but then the government of the day could have abolished it. We can't abolish VAT because we are stuck in this corrupt construct, the EUSSR. And of course purchase tax had nothing to do with the EU, because the EU didn't exist. :roll: And these other indirect taxes are? <_< Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
observer Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 Errm, hang on a minute: thought Ted Heath got us into the Treaty of Rome, then we had a few other Treaties signed by Major and Thatcher, making the hole a bit bigger. Finally, Brown finished the hole by signing the Lisbon Treaty, but was that embarrassed, he turned up a day late to do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazj Posted April 10, 2012 Report Share Posted April 10, 2012 Ted Heath took us into a trading agreement; the Common Market..... It was Brown who signed us in to this federal state of Europe when he slipped in after the cameras had cleared off and signed up in a broom cupboard somewhere... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asperity Posted April 10, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 10, 2012 It was the Maastricht Treaty signed by Major that brought the EU to life. It's all part of the ratchet mechanism that drags us little by little to where we now find ourselves. :angry: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inky pete Posted April 10, 2012 Report Share Posted April 10, 2012 Anyway back to subject, If I had my way I would go to a more Scandinavian tax and benefit system. I would not mind the higher taxes, The young and old are well looked after. Make your mind up Corporal! One minute you're claiming to favour abolition of indirect taxes and a flat rate of income tax, the next you're citing Scandinavia as a shining example. Sweden has a VAT rate of 25%, an equivalent to our National Insurance at 31.42%, and a sliding scale of income tax rates from 29% to 57%. The overall tax burden on workers in Sweden is reckoned to be amongst the highest in the world at around 51.1% of GDP, compared to 34.7% in Germany, 33.5% in Canada, and 30.5% in Ireland, and about 39% here in the UK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lt Kije Posted April 10, 2012 Report Share Posted April 10, 2012 Inky I am well awhere of the VAT over their, but they do have a lot less indirect taxes over their, their income tax is very high as well, They have far fewer taxes, but the taxes they do have tend to be high. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inky pete Posted April 10, 2012 Report Share Posted April 10, 2012 .....and you don't think that such cripplingly high income based taxes provide more incentive for even more of their richest tax payers to use tax avoidance, or even evasion, schemes?????? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
observer Posted April 10, 2012 Report Share Posted April 10, 2012 Think ABBA was one of their biggest tax contributors at one time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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