Budget 2011

[TheFaQQer]

I fail to see why it would be political suicide to merge the two - it would make it harder for future governments to promise not to raise income tax and then raise NI. People already know they are paying a lot of tax. There is no reason why the NI and Tax numbers could not be shown as a single tax number and be known as the post Labour tax rate. If they can work on bringing that number down, then surely its easier for all plebs to understand. Knocking a couple of pence off NI might simply be missed by the great unwashed!

I agree, but it's a big step to convince everyone that it's not a tax hike, it's a simplification to show exactly what you are paying.

The next step is then to remove employers NI and shift that onto the employee so that they get a REAL vision of what the tax levels are like.

I'm in favour of merging the two, though.

[MrRobin]

I think that the main issue of merging the two isn't that people can't add 20 to 11 to get 31% at the moment, even the most plebeian min wage worker can do that, it's that some people genuinely don't think of NI as a proper tax. They see it as their retirement, their health care, their benefits for periods when they're redundant. i.e. it's a government owned savings account.

They should scrap PAYE and increase NI by 20%

[SimonMac]

My concern about merging the two would be how they woudl handle the differences in the allowance before you pay each at the moment, I think its a way they can fudge it to get us to pay more.

[TheFaQQer]

My concern about merging the two would be how they woudl handle the differences in the allowance before you pay each at the moment, I think its a way they can fudge it to get us to pay more.

You "simplify" it, so that everyone pays more.

We're all in shit this together.



But some are more in it together than others.

[doodab]

My concern about merging the two would be how they woudl handle the differences in the allowance before you pay each at the moment, I think its a way they can fudge it to get us to pay more.

Not necessarily. The libdem agenda is to lift a lot of people out of tax altogether, so I suspect that the less well off will end up paying less. It also sounds like there is some intention to go after the very wealthy as they are starting to realize they can't keep squeezing the people in the middle indefinitely.

I reckon with a bit of luck we could see quite a radical reform of the tax system.

[Jog On]

(Reuters) - Britain's coalition government will announce in its 2011 budget plans to claw back an extra 500 million pounds per year from tax avoidance, a government source said on Monday. A 1 billion pound annual tax crackdown package will be set out on Wednesday, increasing the scope of -- and doubling the haul from -- measures set out in December which targeted the areas of company remuneration, currency plays in accounting and value added sales tax.

UK to raise extra £500 million in tax crackdown - source | Reuters

I wonder which 'companies' will be targeted and which 'companies' will be left alone...

[SueEllen]

UK to raise extra £500 million in tax crackdown - source | Reuters

I wonder which 'companies' will be targeted and which 'companies' will be left alone...

As if you need to.

They already spend their time hassling taxi companies and others who deal in cash.

[PAH]

They already spend their time hassling taxi companies and others who deal in cash.

I can see a time when the govermin make cash illegal tender and force everyone to use banks and traceable methods of payment so they can claim their cut.

There's a massive amount of cash transactions going on that the govermin get no tax from. The most obvious 'business' being covers for drug dealing.

Could solve two problems with one hit. Raise tax revenue and curtail illegal drug operations.

Rather they hassle those scumbags than relatively straight arrows like myself and other genuine businesses.

[centurian]

Nick Robinson on the main BBC News just said that George plans to merge tax and NI

It's certainly gathering a head of steam...

[Iron Condor]

Nick Robinson on the main BBC News just said that George plans to merge tax and NI

It's certainly gathering a head of steam...

Im wondering how dividends will be effected by this, i bet we get shafted if the basic rate of tax is increased and NI is scrapped, tax credit on dividends will probably stay at the existing rate.