The new IR35 regime

[Robinho]

Flat tax also means no NHS (which is a crap waste of money IMO), no large standing army to start dodgy wars in the Middle East (which is a crap waste of money IMO), and finally no benefits for chavs (which are a crap waste of money IMO).

A Flat tax is one where there are no bands. You all pay the same rate regardless of your salary.

What is your definition?

[doodab]

Basically if you want to flatten employees NI, income tax and working tax credits into a single flat rate tax and have it remain revenue neutral you need a rate of around 46% or something, at least according to the IFS.

http://www.ifs.org.uk/bns/bn72.pdf

Most of the simpler proposals involve making 90% of tax payers worse off to benefit the top 10% and would be political suicide in the current climate.

[Robinho]

We should cut a load of pointless tulip out like high speed 2 and such to make it about 30%.

[eek]

We should cut a load of pointless tulip out like high speed 2 and such to make it about 30%.

Nah that would make it 42% for one year and then back to 46%.

In the scheme of things HS2 is nothing pensions, benefits and the NHS are the big cost items.

[hyperD]

"As you were, chaps and chapesses" is all I think we can draw from this.

Nearly there...

[doodab]

"As you were, chaps and chapesses" is all I think we can draw from this.

Nearly there...

[swamp]

This too.

Simple taxes are good taxes.

A Flat tax is one where there are no bands. You all pay the same rate regardless of your salary.

What is your definition?

My definition is 13%. No bands, earn all the money you like:

Student earns £2000 working in a bar one summer. He pays 13%.

Contractor earns £100000 working in bank. He pays 13%.

Sir Philip Green earns £1bn from Topshop dividend. He pays 13%.

...and so on.

[Robinho]

I will read that report after the England game (That'd be another place i'd cut funding)

I would also cut....

Child benefits - If you can't afford kids don't have them
State pensions - Would stop these endless rows about who owes what what
Transport subsidies - Everything required to maintain the road network should come out of road of fuel duty (not sure if this is the case already). Same with Airports trains etc.
Get rid of the Army - Why does an island nation need an army? Keep the marines and that's that.
Foreign aid - if people want to give money to these countries they can do it voluntary

I'm sure there's a whole host of other tulip that can be cut.

[IR35 Avoider]

I'd rather go the whole hog to a flat tax. 13% sounds about right.

Having a flat tax and what the rate should be are two separate issues.

I agree with having a flat tax.

If you want the rate to be 13%, you are advocating government spending be cut by about a third. (Based on my rough memory of government finances back in about 2005, when I calculated what the flat rate would have to be, assuming spending was unchanged. The answer was between 40% and 50%, depending on how big you made the personal allowance. If we say 13% is a third of 40% and "income taxes" (including NI and corporation tax) raise half of government revenue, then a two thirds reduction in "income taxes" is a one third reduction in revenue.)

It's a perfectly valid political point of view to want spending cut, but there's no particular reason to link the introduction of a flat tax with cuts in government spending. You can have either without the other.

[Robinho]

My definition is 13%. No bands, earn all the money you like:

Student earns £2000 working in a bar one summer. He pays 13%.

Contractor earns £100000 working in bank. He pays 13%.

Sir Philip Green earns £1bn from Topshop dividend. He pays 13%.

...and so on.

Ok, we're on the same page. You just want a lot more cutting too.

I'm hoping Ron Paul wins the US election so we can actually see some of this in action.