"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Keith G wrote:
What makes you think that 'skill and talent' wouldn't want to go to a
country with a lower cost of living? Because moving tax from direct to
indirect simply pushes up that.


At the personal level, I suspect a lot of people like the choice whether
to buy a (possibly) heavily taxed item rather than have their earnings
plundered before they get them, in the case of salaried/waged employees.

If you abolished income tax, *everything* would be taxed by VAT or
whatever. It couldn't be limited to luxury goods.


Absolutely. It shouldn't be beyond the wit of the thousands of 'economists'
and IT types we churn out every year to come up with a solution to taxing
profits, property, goods and services in a fair and effective manner.


This would also force up
low wages and benefits etc, as you can't alter the tax on goods according
to income which you can of course with income tax.


If anything, I suspect the abolition of Income Tax would allow employers to
pay a little less. The problem with Income Tax is that most of the 'income'
goes to a very few people who are masters of tax avoidance! The whole thing
needs to be rethought - a quick look at the news any day of the week and we
can see there's plenty of money for shopping (weather permitting) and I
suggest it's a good place to slip the tax in (VAT? Purchase Tax? Sales
Tax?). We already know the Brit public likes to pay through the nose - a tax
system on a sliding scale from nowt on bread to a hefty slice on Rolexes
should be easy to arrange!

This makes good reading:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programme...ht/9382745.stm

Where you will see this para:

"So, here lies the dilemma. In today's hyper competitive global economy we
need our super rich and the innovative companies they create more than ever.
But they need us too - as consumers, as employees, as fellow citizens."

IOW, if you want a workable society it's no good trying to tax the poor to
death while the super-rich get away with dodging it!