Good Tax versus Bad Tax – a fair tax system

Mansion tax isn’t new – we’ve seen it before in various formats. If you’ve ever walked passed an old Victorian building with the windows bricked up it’s because in 1696 there was an introduction of a window tax – a property based tax based on the number of windows in a house. To avoid the tax people simply boarded up their windows. This blog isn’t about taxing the rich; it’s simply to point out that we need a simple and fair tax system with reduced loopholes.

British Tax laws are considered to be the most complicated in the world and let’s face it, the more complicated it gets the more we see the system as unfair; whether rich or poor for various reasons. What is needed is a system that supports everyone; regardless of income size. This in itself sounds very complicated as there are numerous tax laws; do you know all that apply to you and your business? And we don’t all earn the same money but there are plenty of laws that apply to all of us – no matter how absurd or unfair we deem them.

For instance, Inheritance Tax is regarded as the most ‘hated’ tax of them all because it’s a tax on assets people have built up during their lifetime and passed down through generations so why is it the business of the tax man?

The fact is we have to pay taxes whether we like it or not, but it is important to understand the ones that apply to us.

The Government’s new framework promises “Transparency, engagement and consistency of direction”, which could mean anything so perhaps the best thing you could do is seek professional advice and get the support you need without scratching your head over and over. Also, ask yourself the question, “If these laws were more transparent would they ‘bug’ you as much?”

Let us know what tax rules bug you and we’ve included a couple of our favourites just for fun:

• In 1712, England imposed a tax on printed wallpaper. Builders avoided the tax by hanging plain wallpaper and then painting patterns on the walls
• Salt was a very popular thing to tax because consuming it is necessary to humans. The British placed a tax on salt, and the salt tax gained worldwide attention when Ghandi staged nonviolent protests against it.

If you like the way we think – you will like the way we work.

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