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Should Income Tax/VAT/NI be abolished and be replaced by one Consumption Tax?
Something I’ve pondered on-and-off for a long time
Income Tax – taken from what you earn
Consumption Tax – taken from what you spendFairer? Perhaps, as the individual can control how much tax he/she pays by choosing how much to consume/spend
So governments can’t get their grubbies on what is ‘yours by right’ – hard-earned but can on what ‘doesn’t have to be yours’ – consumed goods
Needless to say, like VAT, there would be exemptions on ‘consumed necessities’ so the poor would pay nowt on their bread and milk, as would the rich; but the latter would stump up plenty on the yacht they purchase, if they choose to buy one
Yep, that naive and over-simplistic summary seems fair to me. The more you spend the more tax you pay
Easy to administer (at source, like VAT)
Encourages saving (tax free)
Greener (reduces profligate consumption)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumption_tax
If the Government are incapable of framing tight enough tax legislation then why shouldn’t people take advantage – I most certainly do.
Regarding Drone’s proposal for a consumer tax to replace income tax I would be more than happy with that as I save more than I spend.
However I see problems with such an approach as
proportionally
it would hit the lower paid more than the higher paid – I believe they would still end up paying a greater percentage of their income in tax than the higher paid.
I would also contend avoidance of a consumer tax would be even easier than avoidance of income tax and it would encourage more of a black economy.
One taxation change I would make is the removal of the upper threshold for National Insurance contributions. It has always struck me as being perverse that once you income exceeds £817 a week the NI contribution on the excess drops to 2% from 12% I believe it should remain at the higher rate.
Agree Paul,
It’s human nature for people to try to manipulate the systems to benefit themselves whether it’s for tax or benefit reasons. That is not saying either is right. It’s an acceptance that both behaviours are equally understandable.
Demonizing people claiming benefit whilst ignoring tax avoidance/fraud is really just picking on the low hanging fruit and playing to peoples baser instincts.
But it’s not ‘demonizing’ it is just an effort to get people on the right benefits and trim some fat off of the huge benefits bill that exists because of previous governments errors in tinkering with ways to manage jobless totals – they are not disabled to the extent they cannot work if they can use a phone or computer or get to the shops!
Tax avoidance is a completely different matter and the sooner the government adresses the shocking anomaly of PAYE and S/Emp tax/NI payers the better, though this would require some new laws passed and a massive increase in civil servants to do this.
the libcons also hate people with cancer, might as well starve them to death, they will probably die anyway?
Freedom for Tooting!
Come the revolution…
Value Is EverythingA bit harsh, probably more logical to restrict treatment from the wonderful and free NHS to a level of what one has put into it, that would be fairer.
the libcons also hate people with cancer, might as well starve them to death, they will probably die anyway?
Freedom for Tooting!
Come the revolution…
LOL .. there won’t be a revolution and there won’t be any big shake up or reform of anything .. its just the usual drivel from the Tories.
If they wanted to reform the welfare system in a fair manner, housing benefit for example, they would put an upper cap on what landlords are allowed to charge and not an upper cap on what claimants are allowed to recieve.
If they want to get the economy out of a hole they need to let it grow and not force it to shrink. Cutting vat would be a good start.
It doesn’t matter which side of the fence you wish to sit, pretending your party would do things differently with the same ingredients to make things better.
Sometimes no amount of tinkering will work and sometimes you need to let something break really properly before you can see it repaired, properly.
You can’t blame a government that has been in power for less than two years for the carnage caused by the previous government of 13 years, nor can you blame previous ones – avoidance of responsibility, a labour speciality.
Still, nothing to do with the original question to which the answer is unfortunately (for those on it) that it makes sense and will happen as part of the recovery.
Gordon Brown believed he had eliminated "boom and bust". Therefore, Labour did not save for a rainy day. When the inevitable bust came (albeit a "World" problem) the Labour Party had not saved any money. Am not blaming Brown or Labour for the bust itself (although they could’ve done better). Do blame them for NOT being in a good position to fight it off.
Labour’s intended policy of throwing money at it, sorry, "investing" our way out of the troubles might (pigs might fly) have worked. Problem is if it didn’t we’d be in twice as much xxxx and already lost our AAA rating. And yet now… they’re in a position of not being in favour of pratically any "Torry cuts", yet not saying they’d reverse those cuts. Convenient that, being able to disaprove of anything unpopular, yet not needing to be in favour of reversing those cuts when/if in power.
Thankfully the British public have seen through Ed The Red.
Value Is EverythingA bit harsh, probably more logical to restrict treatment from the wonderful and free NHS to a level of what one has put into it, that would be fairer.
How would children be treated under such a system? Some people will never be able to contribute an amount anywhere near the expense of the treatment they have received, but if that treatment has meant they can contribute to something back to society, which god on high is to say that their contribution is any less meaningful than someone who contributes thousands?
Or is it just a postcode lottery…
The economy in the US is growing and the economy in Italy is shrinking .. ?
I wonder what the Tories would have done if they had been in power when Northern Rock, RBS and the Eastern Railway company all went to the wall at the same time? Probably exactly the same as labour I would think. So we would have the same economic dilema but the Labour party would be in power?
Personally, I voted Tory at the last general election because I didnt want an ID card and I don’t want sold down the river even further into the EU debacle by self servering beurocrats.
I don’t thnk anyone truely trusts a politican as far as they could throw them or believes that their intentions don’t involve them getting some sort of personal gain out of anything that they do. Politicians aren’t ideologists at the end of the day,they see themselves more as managers of expectations and implimenters of protocols and procedures.
The OPs original question was whether you support the alledged cuts, my answer to that is that there won’t be any cuts for the tiny minority of people who are in reciept of benefits. But the taxpayers who make up the vast majority of the population there will be hugh cuts, such the the Public Sector not getting a pay rise when inflation is running at say 5% a year.
I would also add that the economic model that we currently have is not working as it is intended to do beause economic growth must out perform the rate at which you can borrow money on a national level. Simple economics in my view.
A consumer tax would just mean thousands of small shopkeepers fiddling instead!
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I crawled on six crooked highwaysIn the 1980’s reccession I was a "full time" carpet fitter. It was difficult to get work. So cut throat, fitters were working just for the sake of doing something. No profit in it. Customers money being tight, every free measure done you’d be asked "how much off for cash"? Yet more "tax" at this time of hardship would bring in even less money to the Government.
Value Is EverythingMore interesting figures released today about the new PIP payments which will replace the current disability scheme.
The Government has forecast that around 0.5% of current disability claims are bogus and have factored in a saving of around 20% on introduction of the new scheme.
..it remains unclear who exactly is going to lose out?
reported movement in death valley
After 31 hours 35 minutes
Dave breaks his own silence
with some lines that would have
fitted well with the best that
Peter Finch bellowed in Network
as he shouted out to a mad worldDave just can’t stand it
and startles the sleeping
sand dead and vibrates
the dry rottting white bone
trapped beneath with…look at me all ye dead critters
I can’t stand it yeah yeah yeah
I can’t stand it yeah yeah yeah
I’m coming back again yeah yeah YEand the sand shifts and death
valley reveals its awful memories
as the bones rise incongrously out
of their yellow parched prison
– all with independent, aching,
rickety movements that creak
their joints and they stand bent
and bark back in frightful unison…ARE YEH ?
…and then another man approaches and
again has the audacity to waken the dead
with an echoing response to dave’s
which wakens the very sands themselves
and starts them shifting menacingly
to attack in both their directions
with the dead bones following slowly behind
forming a sun glistening horseshoe trapPleased to see your post below Dave
I thought you were a gonner but I
see you must have got out.
Me, I’ve always loved a good film
and couldn’t take me eyes off
the skeletons and wasn’t so lucky.
Right now I am standing
here with a few boneheads
who are trying to convince me
I am a dead ringer for
the last guy who played the lead
in their latest blockbuster
the dreaded Necklace of Death.
They have size 0 usherettes down here
who even without hair are lookers
and they just love a cigarette
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