Clegg to push for £12.5k income tax threshold at Budget

[DodgyAgent]

Companies that don’t pay any, or very little, corporation tax in this country should be given the ultimatum of pay-up or F off. They, for the most part, need the British market far more than they need their tax savings and those that do decide to cease trading in Britain, will, eventually, be replaced by British companies – the demand for products and services won’t subside just because the provider is no longer there. Whilst we have politicians with vested interests in these tax shy companies it’ll never happen though.

Unless you can legislate to do this then you are simply asking people/organisations to "volunteer" to pay tax.

[GazCol]

Unless you can legislate to do this then you are simply asking people/organisations to "volunteer" to pay tax.

As strange as it seems, it actually works in Saudi Arabia, UAE & Qatar.

I think we'd have to legislate for it though.

[DodgyAgent]

As strange as it seems, it actually works in Saudi Arabia, UAE & Qatar.

I think we'd have to legislate for it though.

Is it called tax or "backhander" ?

[GazCol]

Is it called tax or "backhander" ?

In all seriousness, I think it's called 'charity'.

[doodab]

Pity that it is financed by dropping the "high rate" threshold which is currently at levels that are hardly "a lot of money in the pocket".

That said it is still a correct policy to have liveable amount tax free to encourage people working.

It is in the short term. Longer term it should be partially funded by a reduction in welfare payments as well.

Personally I would like to see it go further with tax free allowance of around £35-40k or something and a flat rate of tax above that, with employees NI abolished. That to me would be a fair tax system that pays a living wage, and it would save a bit administering crap like tax credits and tax returns and whatnot as well. The only flip side is that the flat rate would need to be around 45-50% and a lot of "middle income" earners would object to that even though they would be better off overall.

[doodab]

For a household with 2 working adults, the threshold does allow quite a large income. My main desire would be not to raise the threshold, but to allow unrestricted pooling on a married couple's income i.e. a joint income tax. Maybe make it opt-in, but for the many many traditional married units who believe in family finance, this would be great.

I might extend that to unmarried cohabiting couples with children as well. Make the system family friendly if you want to support families.

[AtW]

Unless you can legislate to do this then you are simply asking people/organisations to "volunteer" to pay tax.

Paying tax is not voluntary thing, it's a legal requirement.

What should happen is that legal definition of "tax evasion" is changed to cover those "tax avoidance" schemes AND those who sell/make them - it's not legal to sell certain things that can help break into peoples homes, why is it legal to sell stuff that deprives state of tax revenues? Start putting in jail makers of those schemes and directors of companies that used them - corp tax now isn't that high in this country, and I ma pretty sure directors of big companies would prefer to pay it rather than end up in jail.

[doodab]

Companies that don’t pay any, or very little, corporation tax in this country should be given the ultimatum of pay-up or F off. They, for the most part, need the British market far more than they need their tax savings and those that do decide to cease trading in Britain, will, eventually, be replaced by British companies – the demand for products and services won’t subside just because the provider is no longer there. Whilst we have politicians with vested interests in these tax shy companies it’ll never happen though.

Exactly. There are plenty of British companies who would benefit from a level playing field if Amazon decided to have a hissy fit.

[doodab]

Paying tax is not voluntary thing, it's a legal requirement.

What should happen is that legal definition of "tax evasion" is changed to cover those "tax avoidance" schemes AND those who sell/make them - it's not legal to sell certain things that can help break into peoples homes, why is it legal to sell stuff that deprives state of tax revenues? Start putting in jail makers of those schemes and directors of companies that used them - corp tax now isn't that high in this country, and I ma pretty sure directors of big companies would prefer to pay it rather than end up in jail.

The pertinent thing in Amazon's case is that the tax treaty specifically excludes storage and distribution operations from the definition of "permanent establishment" which means that they are not liable for UK taxes on that part of their operations. It isn't really that someone has sold a scheme so much as tax treaties, specifically the definition of permanent establishment, needs updating for the internet age. It clearly wasn't written to take into account global online shops of uncertain and variable geographical location with extensive local distribution operations.

I think we should change it to say that having a .co.uk or similar UK domain constitutes a "permanent establishment" in the UK, thus making revenue generated via that site taxable here. No doubt they would find another loophole for that though. It really is a can of worms.

[d000hg]

Companies that don’t pay any, or very little, corporation tax in this country should be given the ultimatum of pay-up or F off.

If they're paying employer's NI and salaries, does it matter too much? In some of the other countries you mentioned, loads of people don't pay tax so if the company pays no tax the government get no money at all. That's not the situation here.

I might extend that to unmarried cohabiting couples with children as well. Make the system family friendly if you want to support families.

More of a morality maze on that one