"A third of UK’s biggest businesses pay no tax" is the headline in today's FT.
Er, read the article before you write the headline, a third of them pay no corporation tax (by fair means or foul).
Let's put discussions of economic incidence of taxes to one side for now, and whether tax treatment of equity and loans should be harmonised, in terms of collecting, administering and handing over the money, UK plc pays about three times as much in VAT (£80 bn), Employer's NIC (£40 bn), Business Rates (£20 bn) and fuel duties, tobacco and alcohol duties etc as it does in corporation tax (£50 bn).
That's even ignoring PAYE income tax and Employees' National Insurance, which would make it about six times as much.
So the comment in a more detailed article on page 3 that a "study by [total tossers] PwC ... showed that, for every pound of corporation tax, companies pay a pound in other business taxes" is miles off the f***ing mark as well.
Tuesday, 28 August 2007
Missing words round
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2 comments:
Of course only people pay taxes, companies don't! Only people earn money and only people spend money. People are the link between the beginning and the end of the business cycle - the input and output. ALl costs, including tax, are borne by people as consumers, workers or shareholders.
Vindico, agreed, the articles did mention that somewhere. But that wasn't my gripe here.
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