Tag: TaxPayers Alliance

Ukraine and the Economy

It is good to see Donald Trump taking a vigorous approach to settling the war in the Ukraine. I have written on the subject of the Ukraine before – for example here in 2022: https://roliscon.blog/2022/03/08/ukraine-a-more-balanced-view/ . My view has not changed. There is now little chance of Ukraine winning the war militarily so they should settle for the best peace terms achievable. An enormous amount of money is being wasted on this war – including billions of pounds by the UK.

Keir Starmer has announced he is “ready and willing” to put British troops on the ground in Ukraine to enforce any peace deal. What lunacy is this? He is pretending to be able to act like a world power such as the USA when we are not. Simply delusional. Our economy can simply not support thousands of troops stationed overseas. The British army only has about 75,000 full time personnel and the number has been falling for years. One wag suggested that with all these unaccompanied male illegal immigrants they should be conscripted into the army – a good idea. You give them the option – join the army or be repatriated to where they came from!

If we want to have a growing economy we need to have a peace settlement in Europe where we stop wasting money on military equipment and munitions, and reduce the cost of energy by consuming Russian gas.

The TaxPayers Alliance recently made a very good point. The country’s GDP figures may be slightly positive overall (so small to be within the range of statistical accuracy), but individually we are getting poorer – see their press release here:  https://www.taxpayersalliance.com/taxpayers_alliance_declares_personal_recession_in_response_to_gdp_figures

Our economy is in deep doo-doo in reality with Reeve’s rise in NI meaning many companies are reducing staff and profits are falling. High taxes are leading to economic doom as the TaxPayers Alliance frequently points out. It is an organisation well worth supporting. See https://www.taxpayersalliance.com/donate

Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://x.com/RogerWLawson  )

You can obtain notifications of new posts in future by following me on Twitter (now “X”) – see https://x.com/RogerWLawson where new blog posts are usually mentioned.

Subsidising Overseas Farmers

Today’s Daily Express front page carries a new Tax Payers Alliance (TPA) investigation who found that the UK is sending farmers abroad over £516m in foreign aid, whilst the inheritance tax changes announced at the Budget are set to raise £520m for the Treasury. See https://www.taxpayersalliance.com/taxpayers_alliance_reveals_more_than_half_a_billion_in_foreign_aid_for_farmers

The UK simply cannot afford this kind of largesse while the UK population is taxed so highly that the economy is damaged and people are impoverished.

The Tax Payers Alliance is certainly an organisation worth supporting. See https://www.taxpayersalliance.com/

Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://twitter.com/RogerWLawson  )

You can obtain notifications of new posts in future by following me on Twitter (now “X”) – see https://x.com/RogerWLawson where new blog posts are usually mentioned.

The Highest Tax Burden for 80 Years

The TaxPayers’ Alliance has forecast that the tax burden is due to hit an eye-watering 37.1 per cent of GDP by 2028-29. Yes it will be higher than at any time since the Second World War.

The coronavirus pandemic is one cause for the rise in public expenditure but the freezing of allowances has increased personal taxes in real terms as inflation has risen. The rise in social security payments as there are more claims for disability payments has not helped with an ageing population needing more support.

But it is clear that the population, particularly in the big cities, are coming to rely on social security benefits when the incentives to work are poor. Politicians have not got to grips with the negative social trends and if the Labour Party gets elected as the Government this will surely get worse.

See https://www.taxpayersalliance.com/briefing_the_rising_tax_burden for more analysis.

Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://twitter.com/RogerWLawson  )

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Will Tax Cuts Make the Conservatives Electable?

There is a widespread expectation that tomorrow will see the Government announcing some tax cuts. One target might be Inheritance Tax (IHT) which is widely disliked by those who tend to vote Conservative even though the actual impact is often very small. Inheritance tax can be easily avoided with some planning and expert advice.

It is undoubtedly the case that overall level of personal taxes are too high and the tax system too complicated. For example we have the ludicrous situation where the Government has just paid out £500 in “Winter Fuel Payments” to me and my wife which is not taxable even though I can easily afford our fuel bills. It’s just a pointless gesture it seems.

Cutting Inheritance Tax won’t make me feel any richer as only my offspring will get the benefit and that many years in the future. The only justification for removing or reducing IHT is to simplify the tax system, particularly as it generates relatively small amounts of revenue. Electorally it won’t help as only the wealthy will benefit when the Conservatives need to appeal to the middle-class to get their vote up.

The TaxPayers Alliance have just published an updated report on how to implement a simpler tax system. The Single Income Tax was originally published in 2012 and is a proposal to fundamentally reform Britain’s tax system, replacing a complex swathe of direct taxes with a single tax on all income charged at a single rate of 30 per cent. See https://www.taxpayersalliance.com/the_single_income_tax_2023_update for more details and it’s well worth reading.

What will we get tomorrow? I predict more polishing of the existing system with a few bones thrown to the rabid socialist dogs. What we need is proper reform by gross simplification of the tax legislation.

Roger Lawson (Twitter https://twitter.com/RogerWLawson  )

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