Wednesday 14 March 2007

Complete Tax Change

The petition is entitled facilatate a system where the collection of tax in done in a efficient manner and the explanatory notes say
"I ask to government to roll all taxes (current and future) including Vat, petrol tax, council tax, income tax, national insurance, passenger departure tax, road charging, inheritance tax, stamp duty (and any other taxes i may have forgotten)together. Then instead of all the complex tax collection methods make the tax system more efficient by taking 100% of each income and giving back an allowance to live on, say £20pw. An increased allowance would of course be payable to Members of Parliament and Ministers"

So what you're actually suggesting is that everyone's salaries/wages be paid to the government who then give out a "living allowance" which is the same for everyone, except for MPs who'll get more?

I'm trying to imagine out what would happen ... Workers would no longer be motivated to negotiate higher pay, so instead they'd negotiate lower pay (as low as possible, really) but "perks" - broadly what I'd probably try for, I imagine, would be for almost everything I spend money on to become classified as an "expense" which I could then reclaim from the company. I'd have to negotiate some kind of deal about exactly how much I could claim and what for. And presumably most people would do the same thing.

Of course, this proposal would vastly change our society: impossibly so. I strongly suspect the petitioner is joking - particularly given the final sentence. In short: BONKERS.

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