Mr Osborne said: "Corporation tax is too high and capital gains tax is now a mess. We are going to produce proposals next year on a fairly major reform of business taxation."
Abolishing it would be too much to hope for I suppose? Given that corporations don\’t actually pay it?
Get rid of VAT first, then Employer’s NIC, corporation tax is far from the worst tax as reinvested profits are, in the grander scheme of things, not taxed
I would just love to taxes to be more transparent. Annual tax statements from the HMRC showing taxes paid. Receipts showing total tax paid on purchases. I think most people would be shocked on how much tax they are paying.
Kit, I think some supermarkets do that in their accounts, they show gross income, and then minus off VAT, PAYE and NIC, corporation tax and business rates, the figure is usually slightly higher than retained profits plus net salaries paid out.
Mark, you missed my point, I would like to see the tax paid on my receipt at the checkout.
Kit, that is a brilliant idea! Maybe the supermarkets would take you up on it!
VAT is explicitly organised so as to hide the true tax take. Go to a hardware store that sells to both trade and the general public. Often they will have prices net of VAT as well as the VAT-included price. You will get quite a shock. A true sales tax should be included at the till, openly.
@ DG – but that’s monumentally inconvenient, of interest only to crazed bloggertarians. I want to know how much I’ll have to pay for my goods; the breakdown between tax and pre-tax costs is of second-order interest at best.
No harm in Kit’s plan though. Given that there’s no shortage of right-wing tax-hating billionaires in the retail industry, I’m sure it wouldn’t be too hard to get someone to run with it…
John B, I’ve been to countries, including developing ones, that show the tax on the receipt, though this is often a sales tax, as opposed to our more complex VAT system. It makes perfect sense to me. My payslip with its pre-tax and post-tax incomes is a firm reminder of the government’s capturing of my earnings; I don’t see why my Asda bill couldn’t also be.
If it included duty also, anyone buying booze would cough up a lung at the sight of it.