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Austerity! "i'd Pay More Tax If I Could"


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Labour have dared to do it. Raise 1% income tax to offset SNP cuts. 21% and 41% bandings. Lowest paid 20% pay no more.

Lets see if Scotland is as egalitarian as people say. I doubt it but it's upset the apple cart and an interesting move if they get their message across.

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Labour have dared to do it. Raise 1% income tax to offset SNP cuts. 21% and 41% bandings. Lowest paid 20% pay no more.

Lets see if Scotland is as egalitarian as people say. I doubt it but it's upset the apple cart and an interesting move if they get their message across.

I would pay more tax if we couldn't afford to avoid the Tory cuts any other way because the money simply wasn't there but sadly we have got the money for bombing countries, replacing nuclear weapons and are allowing massive companies tax free trading. The rich are getting richer on the back of the poor so until that is addressed I oppose it. I am not prepared to pay for Tory cuts designed to continue this trend.

Edited by Lamia
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I would pay more tax if we couldn't afford to avoid the Tory cuts any other way because the money simply wasn't there but sadly we have got the money for bombing countries, replacing nuclear weapons and are allowing massive companies tax free trading. The rich are getting richer on the back of the poor so until that is addressed I oppose it. I am not prepared to pay for Tory cuts designed to continue this trend.

Belter of a response. If I had set up a parody account of your user name I wouldn't have been able to give a better reply.

Still plenty of cash for all your holidays and with cut in APD they will be even cheaper!

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Labour have dared to do it. Raise 1% income tax to offset SNP cuts. 21% and 41% bandings. Lowest paid 20% pay no more.

Lets see if Scotland is as egalitarian as people say. I doubt it but it's upset the apple cart and an interesting move if they get their message across.

Unless I'm mistaken, the Scottish parliament cannot currently selectively increase tax bands but must raise them all. Also, any money gained would be matched by a cut in the block grant and do would be pointless. The Smith commission may change this but who knows when that will come and in what form

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Labour have dared to do it. Raise 1% income tax to offset SNP cuts. 21% and 41% bandings. Lowest paid 20% pay no more.

Lets see if Scotland is as egalitarian as people say. I doubt it but it's upset the apple cart and an interesting move if they get their message across.

Wait so you want us to vote for that bunch of zoomers just because they have said they will tweak the income tax rates?

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How egalitarian would you like to get

Take someone earning 50000, good wage not mental high.

On that national insurance is 4271

Income tax 9403.00

Leaving £36325 net

From that you have council tax 2000.

Take the remainder and throw in 20% VAT on purchases 6865 leaves Mr/Mrs 50k with £26460

and that's before you add on things like stamp duty, passport fees, alcohol tax, cigarette tax, fuel tax, airport tax etc etc

Edit. Missed council tax

Edited by Mee
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If there was a voluntary tax option above the standard income tax that went to a national fund for infrastructure projects, nhs ect and which was completely transparent to where the cash was going do you think many would contribute?

I know it's hypothetical but that'd be a nightmare and cost a fortune to administer.

I'd certainly contribute though. I don't pay anywhere near enough tax IMO.

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I've got a quiet morning so decided to work out how much a low earning family would take home using entitledto website.

Couple, 1 working 30 hrs a week 7 quid an hour. Other not working so no childcare costs factored in.

Renting a house in Glasgow 500 a month council tax band C.

Income before tax, 10920

National insurance 343.20

Income tax. 64

Council tax 1400

Net income 9112

Child benefit. 1788.80

Working tax credit. 2942

Child tax credit. 6108

Council tax reduction 355.26

Housing benefit. 3287.14

Total entitlements 14482

Grand total 23594

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The block grant would NOT be cut.

Income tax is progressive with tax set over certain thresholds.

First £10k is not taxed which was a Lib Dem policy. Tories now adopted it and planning to raise it to £12.5k. That's a good chunk tax free.

£14k earners will pay £34 more.

£20k earners will pay £100 more.

£40k earners will pay £300 more.

£60k earners will pay £500 more.

*Above all rough figures.

Theory is public services benefit the less well off so its a start on "social justice", "ending austerity", "Tory cuts" etc etc. Surely the phrases were sincere and can be supported from Glasgow East to Aberdeenshire to Royal Berkshire.

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Theory is public services benefit the less well off so its a start on "social justice", "ending austerity", "Tory cuts" etc etc. Surely the phrases were sincere and can be supported from Glasgow East to Aberdeenshire to Royal Berkshire.

I'd happily pay more tax, personally I think that the top rate of tax should never have been cut from 50% and as a matter of principle the point at which you start to pay tax and NI should be set at the living wage - that's the real living wage, not George Osborne's pretendy one.

However the problem as far as Scotland is concerned is its currently a bit of limbo state. The "new" legislation which comes into place this year means that you have to set the Scottish rate of tax and that's an across the board increase. So if you want to increase it by 1%, everyone pays 1%, that's not progressive and has a bigger relative impact on the lower paid than the higher paid. To try and counter that, SLab have come up with this "rebate" idea which its unclear a. whether that's actually legal or not and b. how that would be implemented and how much that would cost - I'm not really a fan of taking something away and then giving it back in a different way, better to not take it away in the first place.

It will only be once the current Scotland Bill powers come into force - assuming they ever do - when there is full control over the bands and rates that you can do anything meaningful insofar as designing a tax model which delivers the revenue you require and encourages the wider economic and social changes you are looking for. That said, its arguable how effective just having control over Income Tax is when you don't have control over all tax and economic policy.

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I'm not going to lie. I'm disappointed by the reply.

Yip, I could see where you were going with that. Only ever been under PAYE and have never had any dubious means of compensation, all above board and tax fully paid.

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Scottish Labour's only mentioning this as they have no chance of being in a position to put tax up. Gimmiky opportunism from a redundant party. But that's not to say they don't have a point.

Tax banding isn't 'progressive' - it just serves to give working people the illusion that those earning more pay more and therefore it's somehow fair. Traditional tax bands are for income, not wealth. If you want to raise more tax revenues you need to find a way of taxing wealth that the wealthy believe is fair. When people believe something is fair they opt in, if they don't they find ways to avoid. Working people have no option to avoid tax but people who make their money from wealth, rather than income, currently do. It's the prospect of handing over half of what they make that leads many wealthy people to opt out of paying anything.

If governments want economies to prosper they need money to flow through them and you don't achieve that if the people with the most money are shuffling and hording their money to avoid tax. That money is lost to the economy. I've long believed that a flat rate income tax across all bands coupled with a flat rate wealth tax will actually bring in more tax revenues if it's at a rate that activey discourages avoidance.

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Belter of a response. If I had set up a parody account of your user name I wouldn't have been able to give a better reply.

Still plenty of cash for all your holidays and with cut in APD they will be even cheaper!

I would reply but I am done with feeding the troll

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I'm genuinely heartened at a Scottish return of capitalism and wealth with the historically incorrect "left" narrative fading. Adam Smith has returned.

You really are losing your ability to troll effectively. It gets harder the more people see through you.

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Tax banding isn't 'progressive' - it just serves to give working people the illusion that those earning more pay more and therefore it's somehow fair. Traditional tax bands are for income, not wealth. If you want to raise more tax revenues you need to find a way of taxing wealth that the wealthy believe is fair. When people believe something is fair they opt in, if they don't they find ways to avoid. Working people have no option to avoid tax but people who make their money from wealth, rather than income, currently do. It's the prospect of handing over half of what they make that leads many wealthy people to opt out of paying anything.

If governments want economies to prosper they need money to flow through them and you don't achieve that if the people with the most money are shuffling and hording their money to avoid tax. That money is lost to the economy. I've long believed that a flat rate income tax across all bands coupled with a flat rate wealth tax will actually bring in more tax revenues if it's at a rate that activey discourages avoidance.

Tend to agree with this. One rate for all, no cause for complaint.

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