June 2008 Archives
The Telegraph is reporting that families are facing their highest tax burden since 1991.
Not at all surprising, I must say.
Much of the increase comes from stealth taxes. The basic rate of income tax has not moved much in the past 17 years: recently, we've had 23%, then 22%, and now 20%. However, council tax has shot through the roof, as have indirect taxes such as the excise duties on fuel. Oh, and let's not forget fiscal drag - that convenient ruse by which Chancellors rake in more tax by increasing the tax-free allowance by the rate of inflation, well knowing that salary rises oftentimes exceed that rate. Result? More people fall to be taxed as higher earners than would otherwise be the case.
So yes, none of this is surprising. The only surprising thing is that the Telegraph article does not contain any remarks from a Government minister. In time past, someone would have turned up to dispute the data, claiming that things have never been rosier for the British people. So did the Telegraph not bother to ask a minister to comment? Or could it be that no Government minister came forward to argue the case? Perhaps they all now realise the desperate hollowness of their empty words, not just to the electorate, but more significantly, to themselves?
Most likely. The Telegraph is reporting that Alistair Darling is thinking twice about the retrospective "green" taxes introduced in the last Budget. Good to know that someone in this Government is waking up to the lunacy of the whole idea. They claim that the punitive rates of tax on environmentally unfriendly cars is necessary to "change behaviour". But if so, why apply that tax to cars that have been on the road since 2001? In such cases, the so-called offending behaviour has already taken place, and more importantly, was not "punished" at the time. Why punish a man for buying a car 7 years ago, long before the green tax greed infected tax policy?
Who will rid us of this clueless bunch of incompetents? It would all be so hilarious were it not for the fact that they are causing proper damage to everything they touch.
Still, the u-turn is welcome news, if true.
