According to The Daily Mash: "Later this year taxpayers will receive a form from the Treasury asking whether they would like a right wing, left wing or spineless, middle-of-the-road tax breakdown. Tax offices across the UK will then issue bespoke statements that will fill individuals with both righteous anger and the realisation that they are the cleverest person in the world.
*rage, froth*
As the cleverest person in the world, allow me to point out - before we even start arguing about the categories used to divide up total spending* - that they are going to send people statements using a deliberately and maliciously incorrect figure for "total tax paid".
As the BBC explains, somebody earning £25,200 a year has £5,702 income tax and Employee's National Insurance deducted from his nominal gross wages and send him a breakdown of how that £5,702 is being spent.
Fair enough, but income tax and Employee's NIC together only raise about £200 billion out of total tax revenues of about £570 billion-odd. So the median full-time earner is paying vastly more than £5,702 tax every year.
Even if you only chuck in Employer's NIC, VAT and Council Tax/TV licence, he's paying something more like £11,000 a year. Booze, fags and fuel duty is on top of that; a bit of corporation tax if he owns shares etc.
*/rage, froth*
* Old age pensions have been included in category "Welfare" to keep the Daily Mailexpressgraph readership on the boil; even worse than that, there is no category for "Procurement from and subsidies to nominally private companies" which is the largest spending category of all at 40% of total spending.
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10 comments:
Ah, but Mr. Wadsworth, as most idiots will point out, everything you mention there isn't a 'direct tax' - what this purports to list.
At least that's what I had one idiot try to tell me else-web earlier.
I started making this very point on the Torygraph site and eventually gave up before I lost the will to live....again.
How much money will they spend on these stupid tax statements?
Admittedly, I was only half awake, but I am sure that someone on Radio 4 pointed out that direct taxes only accounted for less than half government revenue.
MF@16:10.
I am not sure that they are stupid, misleading yes. If they did it properly and showed all the tax you pay and where it all goes, then I reckon it's well worth the money, which in the great scheme of things will be but a very small proportion of total gummint spending/wastage.
PJH, in the small print it will say "direct tax" but people will assume that means the bulk of taxes, that's the tone of articles in MSM.
L, you'd think that the Torygraph would lap it up when you point out that total taxes are two or three times as much as what it says on your payslip.
MF, a few pence per taxpayer, not a huge amount.
B, yes, people will mention that occasionally but the vast majority of people will not get it. So instead of educating people as to how much they are paying, this is basically just a propaganda exercise to whip up hatred of the unemployed.
Mark, well I did get one surprising 'concession' out of my idiot (or could be an omission on their part) - they didn't disagree that employer's NI is a direct tax.
PJH, well done. Now get your idiot to talk to a few people running a business which is hovering around, or has just crossed the VAT threshold, they'll confirm that VAT is a direct tax as well.
I saw that grinning idiot Blair ,sitting in the front row of our Parliament being addressed by the Queen today , why did that thought come to me?
I am mainly concerned that the plan is to reinforce the fallacy that the government can only spend what it takes in taxes. I can see this is the Tory agenda; small government not for the sake of liberty but through a contrived scheme of false economics to pander to their supporters and dupe everyone else.
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