Reply to: BREAKING NEWS; clever people don't pay too much tax!

[EternalOptimist]

High taxes are not just for revenue. It is done to control the population. Eg: Take as much money from taxpayers and control it by handing some back in benefits. Meanwhile the tax burden is forcing people into debt

Income Tax was created by the Government to fund the Napoleonic Wars - prior to that there was a taxation on land and goods - oddly enough after the Napoleonic Wars they decided to continue with Income Tax.

maybe we should invent a new tax to fund the Afghan war. Why should Napoleon get all the mentions ?

[AlfredJPruffock]

High taxes are not just for revenue. It is done to control the population. Eg: Take as much money from taxpayers and control it by handing some back in benefits. Meanwhile the tax burden is forcing people into debt

Income Tax was created by the Government to fund the Napoleonic Wars - prior to that there was a taxation on land and goods - oddly enough after the Napoleonic Wars they decided to continue with Income Tax.

[Tarquin Farquhar]

High taxes are not just for revenue. It is done to control the population. Eg: Take as much money from taxpayers and control it by handing some back in benefits. Meanwhile the tax burden is forcing people into debt

Armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.

James Madison, 4th President of the USA.

[doodab]

WTF did Brownsnot expect? Charge the smartest people in society 50% tax and they find ways of avoiding it. Same here in Holland; the top rate of tax is 52%, but almost nobody pays it; those who do only pay it for the sake of getting the 52% tax relief on mortgage interest and pension premiums and the rest avoid it by either;
- working less hours
- paying themselves dividends (sometimes in a low corporation tax country)
- or artificially bumping up business costs to avoid making too much profit (staying in the Amstel hotel for the last few weeks of the year if it looks like the business might be too profitable)

Close down those last two options and I’ll either work less or f**k off somewhere else.

When will politicians and their voters understand that people are simply not prepared to pay 50% tax, with the possible exception of Swedes who get it all back in subsidized houses, lots of paid holidays and cheap volvos?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle7011728.ece

This isn't about increasing tax revenue. It's about encouraging rich people to voluntarily work less and spend more on leisure. This has a two fold benefit of magnifying the trickle down effect and reducing the risk of the best and brightest burning out prematurely, ensuring they can contribute in the long term.

It really upsets me that everyone thinks our politicians are dumb. They are clearly ten steps ahead of the rest of us and only playing dumb.

[EternalOptimist]

And the Swedes aren't much better if Wallender is anything to go by.

Call me peurile, but everytime I see the name Wallender, I think of all those Swedish birds, and table-ending them. Everytime I see a big boobied Swede I think 'I'd Tablender'.

[Mich the Tester]

A policy I with Scotty land would adopt, I've still yet to see my first obese Norwegian...

Why not just have a minimum price for alcohol, with the price of all booze below that to be propped up with duties? That way I can go on enjoying my Gevrey Chambertin while not mugging old people or stealing people’s cars, but the chavs won’t be able to afford their special brew? Make the case for regressive taxation!

Ah no, bad idea, that would encourage chavs to nick more expensive stuff, for which they would have to venture into expensive neighbourhoods where I might have to shoot them, thus getting me a criminal record, which might cause problems in pre-contract screening.

[original PM]

yet too see a happy one too!

[scooterscot]

Isn't it about 8 quid a pint in Norway?

A policy I with Scotty land would adopt, I've still yet to see my first obese Norwegian...

[original PM]

stop paying the chavs to watch tv and breed

cut the public sector in half

legalise pot

bring back the death penalty

Now where is the party with that in their manifesto - cos that would reduce the tax burden and increase the countries wealth




i reckon anyway

can I count on your votes?

[scooterscot]

Isn't it about 8 quid a pint in Norway?

And £12 for a glass of wine. Or you can buy a bottle at the Vine store and take it with you for about the same price, a good bottle too...

[DiscoStu]

Thailand? Nice nice people, amazing food, oooh the food, did I mention the food was good?

Norway? a colleague who lives out in Bergen now pays less tax than I do in the UK. The services are 2nd to nowit, no national debt...

Isn't it about 8 quid a pint in Norway?

[Mich the Tester]

Tax is one of the ways to control inflation - when people got no disposable income they can't bid silly prices for stuff they want.

Well, unless banks start loaning huge amounts, which causes rapid asset inflation.

Tax IS inflation. It makes everything you buy more expensive in relation to the amount of work that you do to pay for it and gives less revenue to the chappy who makes the stuff.

[scooterscot]

All this 'grass is greener' abroad is bollocks.

Show me a country that is a true utopia

Thailand? Nice nice people, amazing food, oooh the food, did I mention the food was good?

Norway? a colleague who lives out in Bergen now pays less tax than I do in the UK. The services are 2nd to nowit, no national debt...

[AtW]

High taxes are not just for revenue. It is done to control the population. Eg: Take as much money from taxpayers and control it by handing some back in benefits. Meanwhile the tax burden is forcing people into debt

Tax is one of the ways to control inflation - when people got no disposable income they can't bid silly prices for stuff they want.

Well, unless banks start loaning huge amounts, which causes rapid asset inflation.

[PAH]

Tax evasion or Tax avoidance?

Sounds like HMRC are trying to make them one and the same. Currently avoidance is legal yet they have retrospective ways of treating them as evasion based on 'fairness' and not legality.