Sunday 28 September 2014

My few milliseconds of fame

Via Steve, via Robin, from Thursday's Evening Standard business pages:

It's a very positive article, but what's impressive is how they managed to introduce at least three basic, simple errors into such a short article:

1. Council Tax was on the list of taxes to be replaced, not Business Rates.
2. 0.9% x £250,000 doth not equal £1,800.
3. The "rich" would not pay significantly more or less than they do now with a 0.9% progressive property tax, they would pay more in annual tax but save just as much from the abolition of irregular and one-off taxes SDLT, CGT or IHT.

7 comments:

benj said...

I just wonder what the Tories and the Tory press would say if Ed Balls followed your 0.9% plan?

After all, don't they want simple, flat taxes?

0.9% being the equivalent of Band A Council Tax (averaged out), sounds fair too.

I can't imagine what their response could possibly be.

Luckily for them, Balls is so thick and politically inept, it wouldn't have occurred to him.

Good luck Prof Sayce.

Ed P said...

To be fair, it says "based upon 0.9%", not necessarily paying the full 0.9%.

Tim Almond said...

Well done.

The good part is that it only really hits the wrong sort of rich people. Someone who invents a better version of Facebook and does so from Newcastle will be richer as a result of this change.

Steven_L said...

Nice one. Have you had much extra traffic with readers searching your name online?

Mark Wadsworth said...

BJ, Attack on Wealth, Army of Surveyors, Poor Widows, that's what they would say.

EP, well it's not what I said. That might be a better or worse idea but it's not what I said.

TS, exactly. To the extent that there is any redistribution, it's is purely sideways from land owners to wealth creators, and a very modest redistribution at that.

SL, no of course not, it was a few milliseconds of fame only.

benj said...

@ MW

Council Tax Band A are already paying 0.9% on average.

What's good for the goose is what I'd reply.

Mark Wadsworth said...

BJ, that's the whole point. Let's have taxes which are flat fair simple FFS.

If the Homeys think it's OK for Band A people to pay 0.9% then let millionaires pay 0.9% as well. Oh, I thought not.

And if lefties want rich people to pay 40% inheritance tax, then let's have 40% inheritance tax on every estate without any personal allowance to get less wealthy people off the hook. Oh, I thought not.