A Taxing debate

[dwayne110]

No confusion on my side actually. You come across as quite cold and calculating... nil sense of wanting to contribute  to society, 100% about what's good for you. Therefore I don't think its appropriate for you to comment on Starbucks, Costas, etc, who certainly contribute more than you do to the UK.

[DaveShoelace]

And now for a short musical interlude

[samurai]

Anyone see the difference between a global corporation deliberately avoiding paying tax and an individual not paying tax he's not liable for?
Interesting circumstances to advocate censorship.

[samurai]

Doobs, perhaps rather than saying the level of taxation is obscene I should have said the efficiency with which it used is dire ( although improving).
Can't agree that my children should pay tax on what I work to leave them so that a public sector employee can work tax free,regardless of the time of day they work.
Finally, Guardian reader? Could be worse, could be Mail or Telegraph.

[david3103]

And now for a short musical interlude

A reminder of just how bad it was for high earners in the '60s and how ridiculously good the Beatles were.

[DaveShoelace]

And now for a short musical interlude

A reminder of just how bad it was for high earners in the '60s and how ridiculously good the Beatles were.

Didn't realise how much I liked the song until I stumbled upon this dire Tom Petty version, which reminded me how much better the original was

[DaveShoelace]

.

[david3103]

And now for a short musical interlude

A reminder of just how bad it was for high earners in the '60s and how ridiculously good the Beatles were.

Didn't realise how much I liked the song until I stumbled upon this dire Tom Petty version, which reminded me how much better the original was

There are so many songs from so many albums, and so few duds.
I stumbled on to the last 40mins of this the other night.
http://www.cbs.com/shows/the-night-that-changed-america/
 Searching for a dvd of it now.

Oh, tax?
Matthew 22:21
Not religion, just a sound moral code.

[arbboy]

No confusion on my side actually. You come across as quite cold and calculating... nil sense of wanting to contribute  to society, 100% about what's good for you. Therefore I don't think its appropriate for you to comment on Starbucks, Costas, etc, who certainly contribute more than you do to the UK.

I would really hope they do in absolute terms as they take out more money from the uk economy for their own needs than probably every professional gambler in the uk made last year.  However i would be happy to have my largest wager of the year that i paid a higher % of my total uk based earnings in the last year in tax than starbuck's did on their equivalent figure.

[Longines]

[However i would be happy to have my largest wager of the year that i paid a higher % of my total uk based earnings in the last year in tax than starbuck's did on their equivalent figure.

You sure? Betfair paid no corporation tax last year, in fact they have a £4.2m credit to carry forward to next year so none of your BF commission has ended up in the Treasury.

[david3103]

No confusion on my side actually. You come across as quite cold and calculating... nil sense of wanting to contribute  to society, 100% about what's good for you. Therefore I don't think its appropriate for you to comment on Starbucks, Costas, etc, who certainly contribute more than you do to the UK.

I would really hope they do in absolute terms as they take out more money from the uk economy for their own needs than probably every professional gambler in the uk made last year.  However i would be happy to have my largest wager of the year that i paid a higher % of my total uk based earnings in the last year in tax than starbuck's did on their equivalent figure.

be more specific about the bet please. are you saying you paid more direct tax or indirect tax by way of your spend?
how much was your biggest bet of the year so far?

[arbboy]

No confusion on my side actually. You come across as quite cold and calculating... nil sense of wanting to contribute  to society, 100% about what's good for you. Therefore I don't think its appropriate for you to comment on Starbucks, Costas, etc, who certainly contribute more than you do to the UK.

I would really hope they do in absolute terms as they take out more money from the uk economy for their own needs than probably every professional gambler in the uk made last year.  However i would be happy to have my largest wager of the year that i paid a higher % of my total uk based earnings in the last year in tax than starbuck's did on their equivalent figure.

be more specific about the bet please. are you saying you paid more direct tax or indirect tax by way of your spend?
how much was your biggest bet of the year so far?

I don't pay any direct tax on my income it's all indirect on spend as that's the way the government chooses to collect it.  I can't lose the bet as, after expenses last year, i made a trading loss therefore even if i only spent £1 in tax my % would be higher than starbucks.  However i don't get any taxable losses allowable against future year's profits i have still paid all my tax at source via the rakebox etc etc.

[SuuPRlim]

Nhs is in a lot of trouble, should be privatised IMO.

Schools are the big thing that public spending should focus on, in an ideal world.

I don't want to get into this argument but privatising healthcare really wouldnt be a good thing for most people financially.  My wifes salary in the States is about $2.5k a month and the healthcare costs for her and my daughter that come out of that are $600 a month and that is with her company contributing a decent amount on top of that for her.  Despite paying this when she was pregnant I still ended up paying about $8k in deductibles (with almost all healthcare plans you have to pay the first 10% up to a certain amount).  The overall bill just for the three days she was in hospital when she had Liv was nearly $35k and that is without certain special care she had to have during her pregnancy etc.  So many people live in constant dread that any kind of illness could wipe them out for years even if they have healthcare and it doesnt even bear thinking about for those that don't.

Interesting.

I thought about it and in my mind if they privatised healthcare here, but the main chunk of welfare payments was to subsidise healthcare? So benefits payments would go down but healthcare subsidies would increase. N.I would be dismantled and you'd recieve a % of your of your health insurance returned to you based on your salary + circumstances.

So professional gamblers paying no tax would recieve no benefit, people on low salaries would recieve a certain % in tax relief back and anyone in full time education would recieve for free. Pretty good incentive to find work (or to work hard to find work) if you'll lose healthcare if you dont

Having said all this though I really don't know what I'm talking about it's mostly idle speculating but I just feel quite strongly that profit-run organisations are always going to be way way more efficient than not.

[arbboy]

Nhs is in a lot of trouble, should be privatised IMO.

Schools are the big thing that public spending should focus on, in an ideal world.

I don't want to get into this argument but privatising healthcare really wouldnt be a good thing for most people financially.  My wifes salary in the States is about $2.5k a month and the healthcare costs for her and my daughter that come out of that are $600 a month and that is with her company contributing a decent amount on top of that for her.  Despite paying this when she was pregnant I still ended up paying about $8k in deductibles (with almost all healthcare plans you have to pay the first 10% up to a certain amount).  The overall bill just for the three days she was in hospital when she had Liv was nearly $35k and that is without certain special care she had to have during her pregnancy etc.  So many people live in constant dread that any kind of illness could wipe them out for years even if they have healthcare and it doesnt even bear thinking about for those that don't.

Interesting.

I thought about it and in my mind if they privatised healthcare here, but the main chunk of welfare payments was to subsidise healthcare? So benefits payments would go down but healthcare subsidies would increase. N.I would be dismantled and you'd recieve a % of your of your health insurance returned to you based on your salary + circumstances.

So professional gamblers paying no tax would recieve no benefit, people on low salaries would recieve a certain % in tax relief back and anyone in full time education would recieve for free. Pretty good incentive to find work (or to work hard to find work) if you'll lose healthcare if you dont

Having said all this though I really don't know what I'm talking about it's mostly idle speculating but I just feel quite strongly that profit-run organisations are always going to be way way more efficient than not.

Even though i am a massive tory i totally disagree with this.  I think the nation's health and education are two things which cannot be be left to the private sector.  It just wouldn't/doesn't work and when you travel abroad, esp in the USA, you realise how lucky we are to have the NHS in the UK.

[Woodsey]

Nhs is in a lot of trouble, should be privatised IMO.

Schools are the big thing that public spending should focus on, in an ideal world.

I don't want to get into this argument but privatising healthcare really wouldnt be a good thing for most people financially.  My wifes salary in the States is about $2.5k a month and the healthcare costs for her and my daughter that come out of that are $600 a month and that is with her company contributing a decent amount on top of that for her.  Despite paying this when she was pregnant I still ended up paying about $8k in deductibles (with almost all healthcare plans you have to pay the first 10% up to a certain amount).  The overall bill just for the three days she was in hospital when she had Liv was nearly $35k and that is without certain special care she had to have during her pregnancy etc.  So many people live in constant dread that any kind of illness could wipe them out for years even if they have healthcare and it doesnt even bear thinking about for those that don't.

Interesting.

I thought about it and in my mind if they privatised healthcare here, but the main chunk of welfare payments was to subsidise healthcare? So benefits payments would go down but healthcare subsidies would increase. N.I would be dismantled and you'd recieve a % of your of your health insurance returned to you based on your salary + circumstances.

So professional gamblers paying no tax would recieve no benefit, people on low salaries would recieve a certain % in tax relief back and anyone in full time education would recieve for free. Pretty good incentive to find work (or to work hard to find work) if you'll lose healthcare if you dont

Having said all this though I really don't know what I'm talking about it's mostly idle speculating but I just feel quite strongly that profit-run organisations are always going to be way way more efficient than not.

The NHS isn't perfect and private healthcare would give better care to those who can pay for it. That said I wouldn't change what we have now too much as it does a pretty good job overall. People who can afford it can still take out health insurance now anyway if they want better care.