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A Short Autumn Statement Wish List

4th Nov 2015
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Rather than bore readers with large numbers of wishes that even Santa Claus could not bring true let alone George Osborne, this article presents a handful of practical points that would make life simpler for all at little cost to the Government.

A recently written article that will soon be published elsewhere addresses the means by which the Office of Tax Simplification might advance its cause for the general good.

While the dream scenario of abolishing income tax has its advocates, that might leave the economy in a bit of a mess. Ditching capital gains tax or inheritance tax would almost certainly appeal to some supporters of the current Government but is also somewhat impractical.

However, right at the other end of the scale a few simple measures might please voters, ease the burden of HM Revenue and Customs’ officers and possibly even boost the economy.

A hidden agenda here is that a number of the aforementioned Revenue officers have been making life difficult over inconsequential amounts in these areas. This is irritating when they are not always seen to be pursuing serious tax dodgers who are taking large sums out of the economy apparently unhindered.

Salary Sacrifice

Before starting, the Government would be well advised to consider whether the chance to use salary sacrifice while obtaining tax relief should be removed from each of the benefits proposed below, if they were to be taken out of the tax net.

Private Medical/Dental Etc.

The intellectual argument for offering tax relief to those receiving private healthcare, dental or optical insurance is not political but economic.

With the NHS being cut to the bone and then cut again, its resources are scarce. Therefore to the extent that pressure can be taken off by encouraging individuals to use private alternatives this should be a big plus for the economy and the country.

From an employer’s perspective those involved get the big advantage that when health problems arise, employees will be working efficiently much sooner having received treatment almost instantly rather than languishing at the bottom of an NHS waiting list that could stretch for years.

Broadband

Homeworking is becoming increasingly common and takes pressure off an infrastructure that is often creaking.

In order to do this effectively in the 21st-century, broadband is a given. In the same way that the use of a mobile phone has been taken out of charge to tax as a benefit, since it is accepted that these are a business necessity, broadband should follow suit.

It is accepted, as with mobile phones, that there will be an element of private usage but the benefit is rarely going to be significant and the cost the Exchequer should therefore be manageable.

Trivial Benefits

There has been a vast amount of debate and discussion about the taxation of trivial benefits. This was then followed by a couple of long, detailed consultative documents, which does seem like overkill given the triviality of the subject.

It is now time for the Chancellor of the Exchequer to come up with a simple solution. Since £50 seems to be the number that everybody likes, why not just make every individual benefit up to £50 tax-free? This would be simple and effective.

Once again, it hard to imagine that the overall tax loss would be significant, particularly as, like each of these measures, it would save administrative effort for both employers and HMRC, given that some of all of these benefits are often the difference between the need for a P11Ds/PSA and an easy life.

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Out of my mind
By runningmate
04th Nov 2015 22:23

Osbornocare

Whatever the rights & wrongs of tax relief for private healthcare insurance I would think that politically it is a non-starter for the Chancellor if he has any ambition for his future.  The parallels with Obamacare & the accusation of 'privatising the NHS' would be too odious.

RM

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By redboam
05th Nov 2015 14:47

BT and Broadband

The problem with getting decent broadband connections throughout the UK has been the fact that contracts have habitually been given to BT who then cherry-pick where they will and won't make it available. To add insult to injury, where they have taken tax payers' cash to enable superfast connections, they then demand that users pay more for it. Perhaps it really would be in the public interest to see BT's virtual monopoly broken up.

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