22,000 reasons England should have a flat tax system

[Sergeant Apone]

As I recall, the Adam Smith Institute calculated that a flat tax of 25% on all income regardless of source kicking in at £12k would generate the exact same amount of tax revenue as presently.

[Mordac]

>IR admits to over 22000 cases of tax fraud with regards to the tax credit system.

Feck me, if that's what they'll admit to, imagine what the real figure must be...

[Fungus]

If IR was just about a simplicity and fair taxation then yes, it would be justified, but I believe that complicated tax laws increases revenue owing to the fact that their are many more caveats and grey areas that the average business just does not have time or resources to contest. The fact that a bloated IR exists to administer this is neither here nor there as its created state employment which amounts to more Labour voters.

Meanwhile while the barriers to entrapeneurship grow here, places like UAE and S Korea are setting up trade free zones, no red tape, low taxation etc with very little emplyment regulation and the like.

Therefore while the modern world moves towards lower regulation and less state intervention the UK seems to be rapidly moving the other way.

Yup. As I understand it, under New Lier we have lost 0.5 million manufacturing jobs and gained ~0.8 million public sector jobs (parking wardens, tax inspectors, teaching consultants and so on). I suspect that the UK economy is slowing, and gradually we will feel the effects of the increased taxation, regulation and so on.

I read some copper's blogs yesterday. It turns out that the government impose targets on police officers, and they must achieve a minimum number of arrests, speeding fines etc each week or be told off. A bit like schools, where highly paid teaching consultants in buildings free of students write lessons and design initiatives which are then passed to the mere teachers to teach. They must then get so many passes or they will suffer. And of course hospitals cut certain treatments in order to achieve targets in other areas and produce a spurious 'improvement' in services.

The irony is that of the various tax credits that Gordon Brown has introduced, most people entitled to them do not claim them because they do not know they exist.

Fungus

[Dundeegeorge]

And

The irony is that of the various tax credits that Gordon Brown has introduced, most people entitled to them do not claim them because they do not know they exist.

Fungus

You believe that's accidental, do you?

[Joe Black]

As I recall, the Adam Smith Institute calculated that a flat tax of 25% on all income regardless of source kicking in at £12k would generate the exact same amount of tax revenue as presently.

Any link to that Sergeant? It doesn't seem too bad, but is that just income or does it mean 25% on sales/VAT as well?

[Sergeant Apone]

Sure, Joe, here's the study the Adam Smith Institute put together. Having re-read it, they are actually proposing a 20% flat rate. Anyway, you can read all the details yourself. They also propose a £5k floating allowance for married couples that is freely transferable between the two.

The net result is that the lowest paid 50% of society end up paying no tax at all - a somewhat more efficient scheme than Gordo's over complex scheme to collect the tax and then pay civil servants to give it back again.

http://www.adamsmith.org/pdf/flattax.pdf

[Mailman]

Had a laff last year when Gordo got caught out when he instructed IR to remove all positive references to flat rate taxes in a paper they had put together on the subject!

Mailman

[BoredBloke]

"I suspect that the UK economy is slowing, and gradually we will feel the effects of the increased taxation, regulation and so on. "

You mean we are not seeing this already!

[Tex]

I think you must be mistaken. According to Benn0 we are living in a socialist utopia.

[Joe Black]

Thanks Sergeant , I'll have a read when I have a spare moment (or two since it's 23 pages).