Government Tax Advisor quits

[Guest MattP]

All of the petrol/energy companies in their cosy little cartel? 

 

Unless you want to live totally off the grid and generate your own electricity through some means that doesn't involve hydrocarbon fuel.

 

Edit: This isn't a true free market world economy, which is kind of the point I'm trying to make. The big companies have the ear of governments around the world.

 

Generally agree with that Mac.

 

But I still think it's better than any alternative that has been offered up.

[leicsmac]

Generally agree with that Mac.

 

But I still think it's better than any alternative that has been offered up.

 

No disagreement there.

 

As I have mentioned here before though I am extremely leery of too much power in the hands of any one or few entities, which is why I like the idea of corporate power and government power being separate so they can act as checks and balances against each other. 

 

As a rule, the more power one entity has, the less choice of other options available. And I like freedom of choice.

[purpleronnie]

Its time to think outside the box and then look in one.

 

http://www.geek.com/science/german-scientist-extracts-diesel-fuel-from-dead-cats-564518/

 

 

A German inventor named Dr. Christian Koch has invented a process whereby old tires, weeds, and animal cadavers (in this case, dead cats) are used to create high-quality bio-diesel. The process produces roughly 2.5 liters (under two-thirds of a gallon) of diesel per cat. Dr. Koch has driven 105,000 miles so far in his own vehicle on the fuel without any problems.

[Webbo]

The blame is being put on the hard working low paid workers who do 60 hours to place a loaf of bread on the table for their children. The blame is being put on those workers who have seen their hours reduced to part time or no contract hours.

There are a lot of people having the wool pulled over their eyes.

 

I give up believe what you want to.

That must be the 37th time you've given up.

[purpleronnie]

That must be the 37th time you've given up.

He's our very own Sinatra.

[ADK]

The blame is being put on the hard working low paid workers who do 60 hours to place a loaf of bread on the table for their children. The blame is being put on those workers who have seen their hours reduced to part time or no contract hours.

There are a lot of people having the wool pulled over their eyes.

 

I give up believe what you want to.

 

[Guest MattP]

The blame is being put on the hard working low paid workers who do 60 hours to place a loaf of bread on the table for their children. The blame is being put on those workers who have seen their hours reduced to part time or no contract hours.

There are a lot of people having the wool pulled over their eyes.

 

I give up believe what you want to.

 

Crieky what were there hours reduced from to still be being blamed and working 60 hours a week?

[Captain...]

You are completely missing the point here Captain.  Our tax system has a number of deliberate incentives to encouraged companies to do things which the giovernment believes are favourable.  We need to do this becuase companies have options - whereas most people are not in a position to leave and work in another country to reduce their tax burden - companies can do this, and they take this into account in every decision about where to develop intellectual property, where to manufacture, where to base their offices.  All these incentives are taken into account when we set the corporation tax rate - this favours big businesses vs small businesses again becuase small business is less mobile.  This is becuase the one off impact of losing a major taxpayer / employer is significant both politically and economically, and to put it simply, we dont want to piss off a Vodafone when they have other options and are under pressure from their shareholders to deliver higher returns.

So - The corporation tax rate is set higher than it needs to be is everyone pays it, and we use incentives to lower the effective tax rate to businesses which meet certain criteria.  This is a messy business though, and sometimes the law of unintended consequences means that the government misses something which the tax lawyers don't, or they have a different view.  In this grey area, sometimes the government wins the argument and sometimes companies do.  The idea that you can run an incentive based tax system and avoid this grey area is unrealistic, so this will always occur.  The trick is to get the balance between the level at whcih you set corporation tax, what you incentivise and what you choose to fight in the grey area, to ensure you raise the right amount of tax while maintaining your competitive place in the world of trading nations, atracting and retaining business.

Company tax is not like personal tax - you dont guarantee an income by increasing rates - in fact you can have the opposite effect.  This is why the comparisons between benefit fraud and "unpaid tax" is nonsense (unless you draw the line at companies which go out of business owing VAT).  This is a game of supply and demand, not of a firm and understood tax entitlement against which you can measure your tax revenues.  It is a nonsense created by the media to whip up fervour about a story.  Of course sometimes the government gets it wrong, sometimes companies get it wrong, but all in all we are weaving a little along a line which probably earns the treasury about the right amount.

 

Excellent post there Jon, I had not considered it in that way. I still think governments globally need to be working together to limit options, but that probably won't happen as everyone wants what is best for their own country, but by limiting big companies bargaining power then a fairer and simpler set of taxes can be imposed. Despite what you said I still think it is pretty disgusting the amount of money Vodafone got away with, and we should be doing more to tackle tax dodgers like certain sportsmen and celebrities as well as companies such as Amazon, the damage Amazon are doing is not just in the state not receiving tax, but in how they are destroying the high street by being cheaper by not paying tax, thus causing job losses and tax paying firms going out of business. On the other side I am also aware that the British film industry has taken off massively after having taxes slashed on making films. Maybe that should be the way forwards slashing corporation tax, but jacking up VAT to make up the shortfall in theory this would eliminate Amazon's competitive advantage and allow every other UK retailer to lower costs, then VAT increase would keep the price more or less the same. Alternatively increase VAT on all internet sales from non UK registered companies, but I'm not sure if that would be legal. 

[MooseBreath]

You should forward that to hmrc. They probably don't even bother looking at the most beneficial ways to collect tax and there certainly aren't any experts advising government on the matter. It's probably all just arbitrary numbers and they'll surely appreciate any views from laymen who have had a quick think about it.