TAXES; HANDED DOWN TO MOSES

WE HAVE HAD MPs fiddling their expenses; bankers being given what are considered to be ‘exorbitant’ bonuses, and now we have the celebrity tax avoidance scheme which robs the taxpayer of  £1 billion a year. Counted among the celebrities who have signed up tax avoidance are Mick Jagger, Ringo Starr, and Mr  Bob ‘feed the world’ Geldof himself.

            Of course, the millions of people on PAYE, have no flexibility in how much they pay to the Inland Revenue; and to this extent it is very unfair of the famous, or anyone else for that matter, who has access to an accountant to rub the ordinary people’s noses in it.

            As for taxes. We must get away from the ‘fact’ that taxes are the government’s by right…as the 11^th obligation, added as a footnote to the tablet of stone brought down by Moses.

            Our politicians are very careful with their own money; they spend wisely and save liberally. They are exemplary when it comes to managing their own household budgets; they are the epitome of self restraint…stashers every one. But when they are in a position to spend other peoples hard earned money they care little about any waste their spending incurs. Thus, for instance the wasted billions spent on procurement in the defence budget as just one example.

            Then there is the Quangocracy where politicians create extra mural departments of state manned by the great and the good – which do very little good and costs hundreds of millions more pounds of the people’s taxes.

            As a miniscule but politically important spending arrangement, that of subsidising the restaurants and bars at Westminster may amount to only a few million, but what is significant is the utter contempt those who represent us feel toward us in so enjoying such a people subsidised activity

            There are dozens of other examples of government squandering and frittering away the people’s taxes.            Almost on a daily basis some particular extravagance or waste is announced in the media, or by an opposition ever eager to score points against the government.

            Perhaps one of the best example of politicians wasting taxpayers’ money is the illustration offered up by Incapacity Benefit, and how in its earlier formation it was used to reduce the unemployment figures.

            It was Margaret Thatcher who began it all. What was then known as Invalidity Benefit, served as a costly (as we are finding today) but useful way of reducing the unemployment figures. This was because anyone transferred to Invalidity Benefit  from Unemployment Benefit would not count in the unemployment statistics. While Margaret Thatcher thought up the wheeze, this did not prevent Labour from keeping it.

            So this is another way in which politicians, from whatever party, were prepared to go to keep themselves in power, at the tax payers’ expense. Now Incapacity Benefit is being targeted because it is indeed being abused by thousands of people who are capable of working, but prefer the fortnightly payment.

            So politicians are now blaming those in receipt of a benefit, they themselves used as a means of diverting the country’s attention from away what would have been far greater unemployment figures, and there consequences. What would otherwise have been a precarious situation for the politicians was resolved by this additional waste of billions from the taxpayer.

TAXES ARE A COST TO be considered. They are not, and can never be written in stone. But it appears that this is what the modern politician believes. Taxation is part of the social contract between government and citizen; which means that it is being allowed by the people, and not being demanded from, as the modern politician seems to think.

            I can remember when Dennis Healy, the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, promised to make the pips squeak, when taxing the rich. I can remember when, as a consequence of Mr Healy’s ambition, many were driven abroad; I can remember when taxes for the rich were not 50, but between 70 and even 80 per cent in the 1970s. One of the celebrities then, Michael Cain, went abroad at the invitation of Dennis Healy and  was attacked by myself, a Marxist at the time.

            Think of it this way; anyone working for his or her family wants to provide for them. When paying taxes at whatever the rate, whether 20, 25, or 50 per cent. These percentages represent the time that the individual is working, not for their employer or themselves, but the government: and the government sees such hours as theirs by right right to claim. Not as a voluntarily agreed principle and part of a social contract: but, to hear the way those on the Left speak today, one would think that the government has a duty to pick the citizens pockets.

            This is why I cannot bring myself to harangue the likes of  Jagger, Starr, and Geldof  for protecting their livelihoods, even if Geldof does proves himself an hypocrite.

            Jagger and Geldof are my least favourite celebrities. But when a government demands their portion that is in excess of the basic tax, then I feel myself on their side. I imagine myself, having through my own ability, managed to meet with success; I do not think that such success should be penalised by the state through such abnormal taxation.

           

TAXATION IS A NEED if we wish to have a NHS, Education, and a system of defence. These should be the three main procurers of public funding; and if they stopped at that we would not be subjected to the mess we are in today.

            But as we know, there are other calls upon the public purse. The Welfare State has grown disproportionately to what was intended by its founding fathers, costing billions through its expansion into areas never ever intended at the beginning.

            The once envisaged safety net has become a drag anchor upon the whole of society. Politicians have thought up ever more ways of spending people’s taxes and have drawn upon them as if they were akin to unlimited North Sea oil reserves.

            Politicians should show humility and not contempt for our tax dodging celebrities; and remember whose money they are salting away; it at no stage in its creation belonged to the state.  The state never earned it; and if it is to take it, it should do an equitable manner. There should be universal tax rate, while the low earners should be exempt. This is fair and would in all probability bring in extra revenues because of  its fairness.