Request for VAT/TVA number from Leica ?????

[andybarton]

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Of course you pay taxes all year. It's just an effort to make it easy for people to understand just how highly taxed they actually are.

[IkarusJohn]

Of course you pay taxes all year. It's just an effort to make it easy for people to understand just how highly taxed they actually are.

 

Come on Andy, it's a political stunt. Tax take isn't universal, especially in the UK, where you have so many exemptions, and social benefits provided by the State. Sure, it's entertaining, but you shouldn't take it seriously. If you paid the full cost of health and education, and had much less social housing and financial assistance, there might be a point.

 

Edit - interestingly, if you want a genuinely unfair tax, Thatchers "Community Charge" is a classic. Tax the poor more for the services they use? Yeah, right.

[andybarton]

Not interested in the politics of it. Too many averages going on here, but still a useful guide for Mr or Mrs Average, I suspect.

[Guest tanks]

...

I think you are both miscalculaing something here. I am speaking of the HOURS someone works to earn the money to pay for goods & services provided (in some cases NOT provided) by various Governmental Authorities.

 

I would be surprised if anyone who is poor or works for a living was not paying some Governmental Authority or other an ammount of money reflective of 50% of the hours they work when you add in all of the diverse types & levels of Governmental Authorities people pay into. Whether they realize it or not.

 

People at higher levels of income do generally work less hours to pay their taxes than less rich people do. The numbers of, or percentages of, Pounds, Euros or Yen they actually individually do pay are irrelevant because none of those reflect hours spent. ...

 

Michael,

 

Actually, in today's progressive tax system people in higher income levels work more hours than those that make less to pay their taxes. Additionally they are supporting the services being provided to those that make less with their taxes.

[marknorton]

Michael's assertion seems to be that VAT is a badly designed tax because the burden falls disproportionately on the poor - in spite of exemptions on life's essentials (housing, food, public transport), a greater proportion of what's left goes on goods and services which attract VAT. As Bill points out, VAT is somewhat optional because nobody is forcing anyone to buy those goods and services.

 

VAT is however paid from taxed income and in a country like the UK we have a severely redistributive income tax system. Take the two together and the rich pay a higher proportion of their income in tax and much more in actual money terms.

 

In the UK, the poorest 50% of tax payers pay 11% of income taxes; the richest 1% pay 26%. It's getting even more pronounced because the income level at which people start to pay tax is increasing while the level at which they move into higher rate tax rates is decreasing. It all adds up to a squeezed middle class who will record their disapproval en-masse at the next election - not that any of the political parties they might switch too can offer anything but more of the same.

 

Edit: As an aside, the VAT exemption on books is increasingly looking more like a market-distorting subsidy to prop up the book industry. Originally there to avoid a "tax on learning", there is now VAT applied to e-books and my internet connection - which arguably provides ready access to learning - attracts it too.