I'm happy to report that eighty per cent of those who took part in last week's Fun Online Poll agreed that a flat 1% annual tax on property values was a less-bad way of collecting £40 billion a year in revenues than the existing mish-mash of Council Tax; Stamp Duty; Inheritance and capital gains tax; TV licence fee; VAT on domestic fuel; Insurance Premium Tax etc.
We could apply reverse logic to this. Imagine that we had a 1% property value tax, would anybody in their right mind suggest replacing it with Council Tax; Stamp Duty; Inheritance Tax and all the other taxes mentioned? I should like to think not.
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This week's Fun Online Poll is inspired by something that Paul Volcker said last December:
As bankers demanded that new regulation should not stifle innovation, a clearly irritated Mr Volcker said that the biggest innovation in the industry over the past 20 years had been the cash machine. He went on to attack the rise of complex products such as credit default swaps (CDS).
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Wednesday 27 January 2010
Fun Online Poll: Tax simplification and financial innovation
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2 comments:
Perhaps, but it won't replace it will it? It will be in addition like it always is.
Ray, you appear to underestimate the antipathy towards any form of property taxation, and the politicians tap into this by promising 'Council Tax freezes' that might save the average homeowner £40 a year, while merrily robbing each household by £500 or more each year by hiking VAT back to 17.5% or hiking National Insurance by 1%.
No party would ever dare suggest a 1% property tax (leaving Uncle Vince's mansion tax to one side), let alone in combination with existing taxes.
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