Reply to: Brown's bloody tax system

[zathras]

I've just finished my tax credit return, with its 100 pages of user instructions. Business analysts would have trouble with that lot, so what chance the local chav even reading it!

Well, we know the answer to that, don't we, with so many incorrect and fecked-up returns, leaving the national coffers a net £2 billion short. And the Treasury w@nkers have the front to blame people for not filling in the forms accurately.

Welcome to Gordon Brown's world. Unsimple.

Sorry, had to get that off my chest.

That is the whole point is n't it. Make it so complicated that the only people who can fill the form would not qualify, thereby allowing GB to claim to have brought gazillions out of poverty without actually having to pay anything.

[wendigo100]

Frank Field is one of the few decent politicians around these days. Usually tells it like it is. Came up with some sound proposals for pension reform which Gordon hated. And what was Gordon Browns immediate response - gave Frank Field a P45

Frank Field came up with a proposal that (a) was practical, (b) considered the needs of the population rather than those of politicians, and (c) he believed in. He had to go on all three counts.

[MrsGoof]

these tax credits are amazing ,
read in a newspaper about a couple who were claiming child tax credit
for 16 kids , but they only had one.

I have been trying to pay back over paymets for over a year now.

10 I get a letter from them telling me off for not paying the money back
20 I contact them and ask for a DD form to pay them back
30 They either send me a form and I return it and nothing happens or they don't send me a form
40 GOTO 10

[Hart-floot]

The study by Labour MP Frank Field said the Government will miss its target of halving child poverty by 2010/2011.

[/I]

Frank Field is one of the few decent politicians around these days. Usually tells it like it is. Came up with some sound proposals for pension reform which Gordon hated. And what was Gordon Browns immediate response - gave Frank Field a P45

[ratewhore]

I was reading this on the tube the other day:

THE Government's tax and benefits strategy to tackle child poverty "brutally discriminates" against two-parent families, a report claimed today.

The study by Labour MP Frank Field said the Government will miss its target of halving child poverty by 2010/2011.

And, it claims, the risk of poverty has barely changed for children in two-parent families.

Half of all poor children are in working families despite attempts to help people work their way out of poverty, and the number of children in poor working households is at the same level as in 1995, it adds.

According to the report co-written by Ben Cackett for think-tank Reform, a single parent working 16 hours a week gains - after tax credits - a total income of £487.
But, it adds because the tax credits system does not make allowance for a second adult, a two-parent family earning the minimum wage would have to work 116 hours a week to gain the same income.

The study also said that in 2004-05, two parents with two children had to earn £240 a week to lift themselves above the poverty line, while a single parent with two children had to earn just £76.

The authors of the Welfare Isn't Working: Child Poverty want a new Government strategy but campaigners denied there was discrimination in favour of single parents.

Love the last sentence...

[Mailman]

Well, we know the answer to that, don't we, with so many incorrect and fecked-up returns...

If Ive said it once, Ive said it a hundred times already. This country needs a flat tax system (and not the sh1t you have now where you get two taxes lumped on top of each other!) and then do away with every other form of tax deduction/return/benefit!

Then again who are we kidding? There is an entire industry within the government who rely on the tax system being as complicated as possible because if it was simple the main reason for the tax people being required would disappear.

Mailman

[threaded]

these tax credits are amazing ,
read in a newspaper about a couple who were claiming child tax credit
for 16 kids , but they only had one.

You forgot the 'and got caught'. Plenty of others around the world made a mint out of it, and will never be caught.

[andy]

these tax credits are amazing ,
read in a newspaper about a couple who were claiming child tax credit
for 16 kids , but they only had one.

[zathras]

It is a well known fact that the tax system was designed by the Cult of Skaro to ensure that come the invasion everyone will be too busy sitting around filling in tax credit forms to put up much resistance.

Fooled you then! As a law-abiding person who pays taxes I have never qualified for benefits, so I do not bother to fill in the forms; thereby leaving me plenty of time to resist!

[The Master]

It is a well known fact that the tax system was designed by the Cult of Skaro to ensure that come the invasion everyone will be too busy sitting around filling in tax credit forms to put up much resistance.

[thunderlizard]

Yes there are lots of 'businesses' that do that - especially for people without fluent English. You probably haven't heard of them because they are run from the corners of cafes and pubs in depressing towns.

[threaded]

With the tax and benefits sytem being so complicated I'm suprised that there hasn't been somebody set up in business in order to determine how you could maximise your benefits and claim the most money. Obviously this would not be a goer for the really needs, but the tax credits thing should be an easy one to do. I'd imagine that there are a large number of people who would qualify for the £500 ish payment a year who don't claim due to the hassle. If a company was to charge £100 a year to fill in their forms and deal with the revenue, then these people would be £400 better off.

Well.....
In Doncaster some chummy broke into a benefit office and got hold of a book. The book.

This book then changed hands until it reached someone who knew how to use it. The village they lived in went from run down to quite well-to-do all within a few months...

Essentially because they knew what benefits they could claim and how to claim them!

The benefit office was not at all pleased, and I think the government actually changed the benefit rules significantly.

So, your idea has legs, but I think the people doing the service would be quite busy just keeping up with the rules changing as the benefits people try to put them out of business.

[BoredBloke]

With the tax and benefits sytem being so complicated I'm suprised that there hasn't been somebody set up in business in order to determine how you could maximise your benefits and claim the most money. Obviously this would not be a goer for the really needs, but the tax credits thing should be an easy one to do. I'd imagine that there are a large number of people who would qualify for the £500 ish payment a year who don't claim due to the hassle. If a company was to charge £100 a year to fill in their forms and deal with the revenue, then these people would be £400 better off.

[rootsnall]

I keep intending reading up on tax credits properly. Is it worth investigating, I'm assuming I'll get stuff all while I'm doing Ok on the contract front !?

[Sockpuppet]

But that only works if the system knows they are dead!