There seems to be an overriding view that most tax should be personal. Is this right though? When we see giant corporations using the infrastructure of this country (roads, health service, policing, courts etc.) and paying little in taxes for the profit that they're making, we have to ask why there's this focus on personal tax.
And it's not just personal tax, it's personal tax for those who do not have the means to avoid it. Of that top 5% that pay 50% of income tax, how much of that is actually the top 4.5% and the uber-rich pay none or very little, by comparison.
I agree with a lot of what your saying, especially on the corporation tax and the top few % paying more (I’m planning an article on things like increased property tax, a wealth tax, higher corporation tax return etc., as I think their should be a move away from income focus for the rich). But I think it’s very difficult to go after those on the very top incomes and corporations because of their capacity to evade. Interested to hear any suggestions on closing these loopholes, non-dom status is the obvious one of course. I liked Biden’s push for a global minimum corporation tax, but that’s (disappointingly) gone a bit quiet.
I know it's hard for 'us' to get this right and it's true that corporations have at their disposal teams of people who are solely dedicated to ensuring that they pay as little tax as possible globally.
I think a good start would be the removal of the practice of sweetheart deals that we've heard about in the past for companies like Vodafone. The idea that corporations are going to exit the world's 5th (or is it 6th?) biggest economy to avoid more effective application of existing tax law is laughable.
The other general route I'd propose would be taxes that mirror for corporates what VAT does for individuals. It's really hard to avoid it and it ends up being 'just one of those things'. Whether that's done through carbon usage, transport miles or some other mechanism, I don't know - I suspect that there are some good ideas out there that deserve further examination.
Thinking about it, I suppose the other way of doing it is payroll taxes - that might be really painful for the individual in the first instance though, so no government is going to do it unless they figure out how to make sure the corporations don't just pass it on to their workers.
I really would love to hear some more imaginative ideas about how we solve this problem as it's not going away and personal taxation (include VAT/Sales tax) can't be the only meaningful lever that the government has in future.
There seems to be an overriding view that most tax should be personal. Is this right though? When we see giant corporations using the infrastructure of this country (roads, health service, policing, courts etc.) and paying little in taxes for the profit that they're making, we have to ask why there's this focus on personal tax.
And it's not just personal tax, it's personal tax for those who do not have the means to avoid it. Of that top 5% that pay 50% of income tax, how much of that is actually the top 4.5% and the uber-rich pay none or very little, by comparison.
I agree with a lot of what your saying, especially on the corporation tax and the top few % paying more (I’m planning an article on things like increased property tax, a wealth tax, higher corporation tax return etc., as I think their should be a move away from income focus for the rich). But I think it’s very difficult to go after those on the very top incomes and corporations because of their capacity to evade. Interested to hear any suggestions on closing these loopholes, non-dom status is the obvious one of course. I liked Biden’s push for a global minimum corporation tax, but that’s (disappointingly) gone a bit quiet.
I know it's hard for 'us' to get this right and it's true that corporations have at their disposal teams of people who are solely dedicated to ensuring that they pay as little tax as possible globally.
I think a good start would be the removal of the practice of sweetheart deals that we've heard about in the past for companies like Vodafone. The idea that corporations are going to exit the world's 5th (or is it 6th?) biggest economy to avoid more effective application of existing tax law is laughable.
The other general route I'd propose would be taxes that mirror for corporates what VAT does for individuals. It's really hard to avoid it and it ends up being 'just one of those things'. Whether that's done through carbon usage, transport miles or some other mechanism, I don't know - I suspect that there are some good ideas out there that deserve further examination.
Thinking about it, I suppose the other way of doing it is payroll taxes - that might be really painful for the individual in the first instance though, so no government is going to do it unless they figure out how to make sure the corporations don't just pass it on to their workers.
I really would love to hear some more imaginative ideas about how we solve this problem as it's not going away and personal taxation (include VAT/Sales tax) can't be the only meaningful lever that the government has in future.