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Tax and the budget
With an unnecessarily complex tax system, how about:
1. Income tax - tax capital gains as income, combine all existing reliefs into one, raise the threshold to half the average national wage, equalise the standard rate with corporation tax.
2. Company tax - a single rate, equal to the standard rate of income tax.
3. VAT - abolish the zero and reduced rates and have a single rate of 15%.
Budget
Abolish Class 4 Nics. Reduce VAT registration limit to £10k; Band Vat by t/o. Up to £20k (say)10%; up to 40k 12.5%; up to £60k - 15% - then full rate.
Tax Ideas
Some ideas for simplifying tax:
1. Scrap capital allowances and allow depreciation as shown in the accounts. Obviously there would have to be limits to stop companies say writing off major items of plant over 2-3 years etc. but if reasonable and realistic rates are used then why have a whole separate scheme which writes them off over a different period for tax purposes?
2. Scrap national insurance and put the extra burden onto income tax (whilst retaining some form of Ers contribution). We all know that NI is really just another form of tax so why the pretence? Besides there is a history of chancellors saying that they will not raise income tax only to have them to put up NI instead. Scrapping NI will prevent any future chancellor making sneaky tax rises by just putting it on NI.
3. Restore indexation allowances for all capital gains. It's simple and people understand it. If your asset goes up in line with inflation you've not made anything. If it goes up by more than inflation you've made a profit and there's tax payable on it - simples!
4. Scrap the current airport taxes and taxes on insurance and just charge VAT. Apart from making it simpler it also stops one avenue for bloody Ryanair advertising dirt cheap airfares and then sticking loads of hidden extras on top!
Capital Allowances
Scrap capital allowances and allow all "capital" expenditure to be claimed as revenue expenditure thereby encouraging investment and expansion.
Make us laugh!
Thanks for all your suggestions so far. Unfortunately they all seem rather serious! Anyone got any funny ones for us? The crazier the better! Keep 'em coming!
Need some ideas to get your creative juices flowing? Check out these amusing examples:
Bring back Toffos (a man's gotta chew what a man's gotta chew) and set the price per pack permanently at 30p.Tax expense claims at 2.5% to "rebuild confidence in the integrity of British Politicians" - or not!!!Tax all banks with a corporation tax rate of 90% and all bank employees with a rate of 90% on bonuses.
Budget Bonanza -Beat the Chancellor
Tax Raising:
(i)Beat The Chancellor- What a good idea!!
(ii)Ex-Politicians Levy: 90% on all earnings in three years post office period or weekly tour of UK in the stocks for same period.
(iii)House of Lords: Impose a joing fee and annual subscription.
Tax Changes:
(i)Reverse Co2 emission taxes ie higher the guzzler lower the tax.Appoint Jeremy Clarkson to implement this and other measures.
(ii)CGT:Amend to a voluntary tax (some might argue it already is!!) Pay what you consider fair.
(iii)PPR:Amend to allow flipping homes with impunity as this will simplify the matter for all MPs'.
Spending:
(i)Challenge Boris Johnson to spend £1billion in three months.If successful repeat indefinitely
(ii)BP shares:Government to invest in BP shares.
(iii)Sport:James Corden and Ricky Tomlinson to have joint responsibility of sports budget.
Incentives:
(i)Bankers Bonus Scheme:Highest bonus to those who lose the most.(Oops!! sorry this is already in place.)
Cuts:
(i)Benefits:Employ the biggest scroungers to revise the system as they obviously know it better than anybody else.
(ii)Public Sector:All employees to be subject to re-interview for their posts with Richard Littlejohn. RJ's decision to be final.
Budget suggestions...
A flat 10% rate of tax for all.
An additional 80% tax for anyone [in no particular order] falling within the following categories: Wearing a moustache, a beard or with excessive sideburnsWearing a tracksuit whilst not engaged in sporting activityAll politiciansAnyone who wears a hat whilst driving a motor vehicleCat ownersCardigan wearersWearing socks with sandalsHaving a double-barrelled surnameAll council employees and consultantsCar clampersOwners of i-padsTweetersBoring farts of any ageAnyone called Jeremy Clarkson, Simon Cowell or Anne RobinsonAnyone who littersMEP’sEveryone entering the UK [yes that includes people returning from holiday, business etc.] It will be free to leave.Footballers and their spouses/partnersAll A-Z listersAnd lastly [for now], anyone who takes themselves or life too seriously.
You owe us rent
How much would we make if we privatised Wales?
Posted by Anonymous on Tue, 08/06/2010 - 10:03
More importantly - how much would Wales get for renting out England to you Norman invaders - your lease is up :)
And I wonder how much we could make for charging Birmingham for storing all it's drinking water?
Make the [***] a toll road for all caravans.
Simplify The Tax System
1 Abolish NI
2 Abolish all other taxes (eg CGT, IHT, stamp duty etc), except for income tax
3 Abolish higher rate tax bands and taxes
4 Set one rate of income tax applicable for all people at 20%
5 Increase personal allowances to £15000, for all
6 Soak up the tax take shortfall by adjusting VAT rate annually
The results will be
1 A simplified tax system
2 Lower direct costs wrt running HMRC
3 Simple annual budget announcement that more people will actually understand, and that the politicians can't hide behind
4 Lower indirect costs, eg less time and money spent by people on looking for complex ways to avoid tax
5 Offshore residents will contribute more to the economy via the higher rate VAT
As Alexander the meerkat would say "Simple!".
Toll Booths
On the exit of supermarkets - by weight
Past primary schools
Bristol
M25 on the Londoners side - i.e a charge to exit London
An additional charge to get out of the London congestion zone
Tax suggestions
We face severe structural problems with an ageing population and too many claiming benefits of one sort or another - so lets have some radical tax and benefit changes that encourage new behaviours, eg:
No benefits for anyone who becomes a parent before the age of 25 - might encourage a few more people to get some qualifications and life experience before trying to pass their genes on!If you agree to pop your clogs at 80 then there is no IHT on your estate.Withdraw all benefits once people pass the age of 80 - they've had their time so no more pension or winter fuel payments. We need cold spells to help reduce the ageing population not payments to keep the oldies alive!Free flights to Zurich for those reaching 80
Then on a more general basis a few extra measures, eg:
Salaries and bonuses only to be tax deductable up to a total of £250K on an individual by individual basis - to refelect the fact that rewards in excess of this level are about vanity and not really about the business need!Introduce a property tax based on notional rental value - less an allowance for family size to discourage investing in property. Should help reduce property values and get childless couples freeing up larger house for families.
Would I vote for these measures? Yes - even thought it would mean selling up sooner rather than later. At least I would know I have got about 20 more years to make the most of life before I did my civic duty and stopped being a burden on the state and on my heirs!
A manifesto for change
Free bumblebees for all children, to replace the Child Trust Fund
A 100% tax on all nuclear weapons held by Johnny Foreigners
Corporation tax incentives for the production of paper darts
VAT replaced by SEKS (Stamp Exclusive Swearing and Kissing) tax
Window tax to be re-introduced, to replace Stamp Duty: 20% per window
National insurance levied on all Blue Peter badges still held in attics
A 50% exit tax on divorces
Traffic wardens to be funded entirely by a new tax on angels
Consideration of a worm tax, to replace income tax
How About for a start
Re-invade France = correct usage of Income Tax.
Automatically ban anyone from being an MP unless they can demonstrate that they really don't want the role. That way we avoid getting the MPs we do get. The alternative would be for all prospective candidates uynable to demonstrate their dislike for the role should pay the Treasury the equivalent of 1 years annual MOs salary and allowances, non refundable.
Have a Pick and Mix in all Public buildings, income to go towards financing sick pay for public sector staff, when it's all gone - no sick pay.
Anyone wearing trainers without actually doing anything "sporty" should have to do 4 weeks community service and pay a fine equal to 10 times the price they paid for the trainers.
It should be illegal to advertise on TV without the individual licence holders permission.
Allow Council Tax payers to elect which services they actually want and only charge them the appropriate tax. If they elect to not pay for a service and later find that they need it they must pay for it at extortionate rates.
Immediate incarceration for any charity worker offering to pack your bags in a supermarket, or free groceries for a year, either way is good for me.
I agree with the earlier policy of not wearing hats in cars.
Large fines for people who miss more than two NHS appointments in their life.
Flat rate tax on all earnings of any type - not funny just correct.
Tax on tattoos - yeuch!
Tax on visible body piercings.
Tax on any organisation that wishes to demonstrate on the public highway - say £100 per attendant. Free demonstations in public parks or private land. This also applies to marathons, half marathons. 10K or any other stupid event held on the streets.
Fines for all incidents of incorrect use of English by "personalities". This would
encourage them to shut up orencourage them to speak correctly.
Tax at 200% the money raised by televison and radio programmes that depend on the telephone vote of their, obviously mentally challenged viewers and listeners.
Ooooohhh i could go on but i must get back to work.
Reform Local Government to protect front line services
There is far too much waste in the public sector, especially in Local Government. The majority of the public have no idea how much money is spent on the vast layers of management and back office functions.
In order to try to protect the front line when cuts are made, I would redesign the Financial Services Directorates of Local Government. In this age of austerity, local authorities are going to have to ensure that they provide Value for Money to the public in all the decisions that are made and that means starting with redesigning Financial Services to ensure that they have the skills and expertise to be able to deliver the cuts necessary, paid for at competitive market rate and not at its current rate, which is in fact way above the market rate.
I have worked for two local authorities in Financial Services in the past five years and I continue to be astonished by how many unqualified accountants are employed earning salaries in excess of £30,000 per annum and in some cases more than £40,000, when it would be extremely difficult to command much more than £20,000 per annum in the private sector without the relevant qualifications. I laugh when I hear that public sector employees are paid less than private sector employees, because this certainly isn’t the case in Financial Services. I do believe in theory that front line services can be protected in local government. It is a standing joke in local government that for every front line worker, a manager is needed to tell them what to do and monitor their every move and that each manager also needs a manager to tell them what to do and monitor their every move and so on. As a result, the bureaucratic process is never ending and what local authorities have ended up with is vast amounts of back office departments and management teams, which the public don’t see or get any direct value from. This of course costs the taxpayer a lot of money and is non productive in that it serves only to demoralise and de-motivate teachers, social workers, carers and all other front line workers who are micro-managed to the extent that they are made to feel as though they are not trusted to make any decisions or use their initiative. I also believe that front line workers do provide value for money to the public but it’s the vast amounts of ‘back office’ staff and management teams employed by councils that the public aren’t aware of that can be reduced which will also have the advantage of empowering the front line workers to feel more valued. Unfortunately in practice, this is unlikely to happen because the ‘back office’ staff and management teams will protect themselves and their mates and relatives that they have employed by cutting the front line services, and justifying this by claiming that it is the fault of the new coalition government for reducing central funding. I do fear that the public will believe their councils and also blame the government for the loss of essential services. It doesn’t have to be this way if councils were redesigned by evaluating every ‘back office’ and management job and eradicating them if they can’t provide value for money, whilst at the same time leaving the front line alone. Unfortunately, the managers that are tasked with making the cuts in the public services will protect themselves, their 'unqualified' friends and relatives who they have employed to work alongside them over the Labour years, at a heavy social and financial cost to members of the public via a reduction in front line provision. What a tragedy!
Budget ideas
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The UK needs to become leaner and fitter and all unnecessary work/ employment , should be pared down. This should apply to the tax system and the accountancy profession as well as other areas.
The previous government created many ‘make work’ jobs to compensate for the decline of traditional jobs ( i.e. where someone made something or did something) or perhaps to try and hide the true state of affairs. This is the wrong approach; the right approach is to strip out as much work from the system as possible to reduce it to its bare essentials. Only then can you build on a solid base.
The present tax system is, let’s face it, a massive job creation scheme for accountants, lawyers, other tax experts and consultants, tax officials and their staff as well as the software programming industry.
It is also just plain unfair that the super rich can pay 0 % (but instead pay an annual levy of £30K), the very very rich pay 10% on much of their gains( BATR and Entrepreneurs relief) , higher earners pay 51%, the lower earners pay 41% the lower still earners pay 28%, small businesses can pay 21% and the underclass receive god knows what. Property speculators don ‘t have to pay national insurance but university lecturers do - why?
To start to remedy this:
1. A flat rate of 20% for:
i. Corporation tax
ii. Income tax ( to be merged with NI)
iii. Capital Gains Tax
iv. VAT
v. The CIS rate to be the same as the VAT rate ( so where a business is subject to CIS deductions and is VAT registered the two taxes cancel each other )
2. Tax to be paid in three forms:
i. Primary tax - Money 15%
ii. Secondary contribution – Community service, Scientific, artistic, cultural, sporting, renovative, environmental or charitable projects OR money OR direct work for the Government/ Local Government - 5%
iii. Voluntary contributions to ii above. Amounts over 5%.
3. Abolish the distinction between tax planning, tax avoidance and tax evasion.
If matters are left to themselves unemployment will rise so:
Private sector organisations to take over responsibility for people who were previously unemployed / on sickness and for those made redundant and pay their dole and take responsibility for providing activity for these people out of the 5%.
No one to get should be paid dole for doing nothing.
Example: a large employer lays off 1000 people in an industrial town. The town has some run down vandalised housing estates with boarded up buildings, high levels of drug and alcohol abuse, graffiti, violence and disorderly and delinquent behaviour among the young. A large company taxpayor takes over responsibility for paying the dole to these people(out of its 5% tax obligation); in return they have to get to work to clear up their own mess. The company to provide equipment and materials and professional supervision etc.
Those unwilling to work for their dole/ continue to pursue anti social behaviour enlisted into the army. (I won’t go so far as to say for work in mine clearance in Afghanistan.)
The self employed/ small businesses to be able to work for government / local government to pay their 5%. ( As a one off amnesty measure to reduce arrears of tax this is to be increased to 100% of tax arrears at the time of the budget, so if someone can’t pay their tax they have to work for the government until the tax bill is cleared )
Example: A self employed builder has arrears of tax (because a major customer could not raise finance for a project as expected at the same time as he kept his workforce on); he can pay the tax arrears by working to renovate a house occupied by a disabled pensioner who cannot afford to do the property up. Benefits – taxes treated as paid, government owned assets are improved ( possibly for onward sale when the present occupant passes away) , pensioners lives improved , small business saved, small business owner saved from worry and distress over bailiffs visits etc. etc.
In order to pay for the reduction in headline rates there should be less claiming, fiddling and cheating and a broadening of the tax base.
4. Personal allowances, age allowances etc to be abolished. This will have the added benefit of scrapping a whole industry of personal allowances claim backs for CIS, foreign workers etc.
5. Small business and the self employed are to be taxed according to whether they are self employed or small businesses rather than according to whether they are companies, partnerships or individuals. ( Substance over form)
6. The self employed to be given an annual expenses allowance based on turnover for all expenses. This allowance will eradicate the need for bookkeeping and accounting for the majority of the self employed so that they need only to record their turnover thus saving vast amounts of professional time.
7. In this way brown paper bags would no longer be allowed into accountancy offices , office juniors will no longer have to spend their days adding petrol bills or trying to work out which restaurant bills are for ‘entertainment’ and which bills are for subsistence. Accountants will no longer have to advise on wife’s wages and claims for use of home as office thus saving a vast amount of money and professional time for more productive work.
8. There are far too many small companies in the country which seem to serve no purpose except tax avoidance. These cause an enormous amount of unnecessary work and confusion. Each company to appoint a ‘responsible tax person’ to be responsible for the tax from the company. That person may notify Companies House that he or she is taking over the tax responsibilities of the company and Companies House may then, if requested, delete the company from the Register.
9. All loss reliefs to be abolished- people should learn not to lose money!
10. Abolish the tax raising powers of Quangos such as the BBC and the CITB; these to be given much smaller sums or scrapped. Giving these organisations tax raising powers creates injustice (why should builders pay an extra tax?) and duplication of effort(= waste).
11. Linking the property base with the income tax base to ensure that all residential homes are generating tax. All residential property in the UK to be owned by an individual who is responsible for paying tax ( No hiding behind overseas Companies)
12. Owners of empty properties to pay tax on the annual rental value
13. Directors of large companies that deliberately delay payment to their suppliers to be imprisoned and taxed at 200% for 10 years retrospectively. Same consequences apply if they unfairly renegotiate contracts with their suppliers to worse terms than before.
14. Large Companies and Banks Mistakes Tax and Confiscation Order – the culpable directors of large companies to be subject to a confiscation order to return all bonus money / or assets received/ proceeds etc when they have presided over a mess causing vast losses to the public and / or had to be bailed out.
15. As the confiscation order is insufficient to recover all the money lost, the culpable directors of large companies/ banks to be subject to a Banks Mistakes Tax from all personal future earnings on income above £24,000 (national average earnings) until losses recovered. The mistakes tax to apply whether the mistake is dishonest, honest, daft, crazy, mad, stupid, very stupid ( e. g. lending to sub prime borrowers.) or inadvertent.
16. This tax to apply to Gordon Brown
17. Due to economic circumstances many small business / self employed persons cannot pay their tax. As a one off amnesty to reduce problems caused by the recession/ credit crunch/ greed fuelled spending frenzy event, small businesses and the self employed to be given the option of working for the government/ community service to pay off arrears of tax. The Government (including local Government) to accept any reasonable offers of work/ goods/ services . (Goods/ services to be charged at sales price)
18. Mortgages, loan and credit card advances to be taxed. The Mortgage Loan and Credit Advance Tax to be introduced in 2010/11 at 1 % a of the loan advance amount and increased by 1% pa until house prices come down to affordable levels.( defined as 2.5 times income as in the old days when the system worked, couples could have children etc ) The UK has got into the habit of ever increasing debts and ever increasing house prices and many regard houses as some kind of casino chip. This has priced most young people right out of the housing market and houses are no longer bought for living in and raising families etc. The best way out is to tax these bad habits ( same principle as taxing tobacco) and get the level of indebtedness down.
19. Other reforms – Passwords cause too much confusion and time wastage - HMRC and the banks to be fined for using the letters I, L or O and the numerals 1 or 0 in any computer password or code. A fine of £10,000 + re imbursement of professional time spent trying to work out whether, for example, a digit in a code is a 1, an L or an I. The fine for the use of a B or an 8 in a code to be £5,000. ( because this is only confusing if, as in my case, your handwriting or eyesight is poor)
20. Audits to be abolished – the auditors didn’t seem to spot that banks were basing their vast profits and bonuses on sub prime lending. (Also to be noted; these monumental errors only seem to get found out when things are so bad the company goes bust but it seems fair to assume that all kinds of errors also occur in cases where the banks did not go bust. )
21. Child tax credits and sickness allowance to be claimed on annual IT return and set against each other so that each taxpayor/ claimant only does one form per year and has only one account with HMRC. i.e. Child tax credit to be set against IT.
22. The Governments / Local government accounts to be prepared by small firms of accountants so that we get a fair share of governmental revenue and produce understandable accounts.
work for all - who want it anyway
Remove VAT from Takeaways, sweet shops and restaurants to make them more affordable
Increase VAT on all healthy activities gyms etc to make them even less attractive
Introduce VAT at 50% on all expandable clothing, shell suits etc
Ban pedestrians and cyclists from the roads during daylight hours - rush hour made safer instantly.
Third lane of motorways to be restricted to a minimum speed of 90 miles an hour - get home faster.
After twelvemonths introduce a Fitness And Taste (FAT) tax where anyone with a BMI of over 18 or wearing expandable clothing has to pay a higher rate tax of 50% on all income (including benefits and WFTC etc etc) - and no grandfathering clause that exempts you if you were fat before the new regime came in.
Reintroduce VAT on Takeaways etc at 25% so those now addicted to fast food have no choice but to carry on buying.
The higher VAT on fast food and spandex clears government debt in five years, population falls due to increase in heart attacks etc so no more drains on health service and pensions shortfall disappears.
Anyone wishing to join my political party please apply on line, just a bit short of numbers at the moment to qualify for beneficial tax status:)
Rebranding
Compulsory rebranding for plc's every year - would stimulate the economy and generate additional income for advertising, stationery firms etc and hence increase the tax take.
One-off Tattoo tax - automatic flat rate tax levy of £100 per tattoo.
Health tax - fast foods 50%, health foods 5% refund - encouraging healthy eating and reducing the price of healthier foods - would cut the health service costs.
Lie detectors to be fitted to politicians - flat rate levy of £50 per lie detected in any televised interviews. To come from their pay - would effectively get them to pay for the privilege of being a politician, or encourage the truth (yeah right)
Phone-in TV show profits to be taxed at 150% - may encourage some better standard of TV.