It doesn't though - you are suggesting a 25% on everything. Inheritance tax has a threshold of £325k currently. Even that is far too low in my opinion, especially when you consider a two or three bed semi around our way is circa £600-£700k...
The tax system here certainly needs modifying. Any income over £12 k is subject to taxation. Someone has an income of a penny less than £12 k ( made up of state pension and small private pension ). State pension then increased by a few £'s so the private pension is reduced accordingly. The result being that despite claims that pensioners will be better off, any actual increase is minimal and certainly not when the rising cost of utilities and council tax are taken into account.
My pension went up £18 last month. They took £8 extra tax from my tiny private pension, if it continues, the only use of my private pension will be to pay the tax.
Exactly so @pete - you may as well just hand it over to HMRC now and have done. Oops..... no maybe not - it will count as a donation so taxed
I usually do tax thing for my charity donations, cant remember what its called, but the charity claims the tax back on your donation.
You could add in minimum thresholds. My point is not to penalise anyone anywhere on the wealth spectrum, but to have a system that is consistent, fair ... and, most crucially, unavoidable. I actually think inheritance tax is a good idea. You accumulate in your lifetime and then you hand over a portion to benefit society. But if it is paid on my estate when I die, and owing a terraced house in the south means it will be, it should be paid on the estates of Sunak and Cameron and Boris, etc.
You have to remember that while tax evasion is illegal, tax avoidance is legal and on one level is a game played by tax advisers and HMRC. All that will happen is that some very clever people will be well paid to avoid your new tax regime in new ways.
I've thought of that! I will declare advising anyone on how to avoid paying their 25% a criminal offence with a mandatory 5 yr jail term.
Surely it would be simply easier to scrap income tax altogether and just put tariffs on everything. It would then mean that the rest of the world pays for it. That was a solution I recently read somewhere from a great economist.
I'd simplify the tax system massively (pretty sure I've said this before too) Earnings up to £20k, tax free. Everything above, circa 50% - but no NI, reduce VAT to 10%, no fuel duty, no inheritance tax, no insurance premium tax, no council tax and then completely overhaul business taxation too... lower rates but harder to get out of paying; trade here, you must pay tax here of some form or other - no off-shoring etc allowed. I would also put a tax/tariff on any product coming into the UK that has an equivalent made here and give tax breaks for a period of time (to be determined) to anyone setting up manufacturing here to make products here that are not currently made here. At the same time, take a scythe to the waste that continues in our public institutions. Oh, and I'd make the bare minimum income for pensions or benefits £20k. Anything care related - put it back under the NHS, and that includes at home care.. no way that should be under local councils. Roads, including signage (includes street surfacing) - they should be a national problem, with a set minimum standard across the land. Of course, local teams would be needed, but all under the one state department. Councils responsible for street cleaning, street lighting, pavements, education, waste & recycling, social work, parks & burial grounds and not a lot more with a per captia payment made from central government to fund.
I just think if to start putting caps on how much money people can amass they will just stop trying, in a similar way that small business tends to baulk at making too much turnover that drags them into VAT. I think if I was a multimillionaire I would have got out of this place years ago, I dont see any real future in this country unless things change, and I cant realistically see that happening any time soon. The rest of the world is overtaking us fast.
I agree that care homes and that kind of thing, including hospices should be government funded, but not under the NHS, because they would let it crumble. It needs its own budget set and paid by government out of our taxes, at least then governments wouldn't then be able to blame local services.
