Quote ="wrencat1873"This is all well and good but, if your investments grow as a direct result of government policy, you could be making huge gains without actually "doing anything" and in those circumstances, it's "right" to pay some additional tax on your gains.
The bottom line is that it is ridiculous for everyone to pay the same amount of tax - remember the poll tax
Therefore, the heaviest burden should always fall on those who can afford to pay, regardless of how each of us have chosen to live our lives.
If I pee my income up against a wall on a Friday and Saturday night and smoke 40 a day, I will have paid over plenty of "extra" tax and equally, if I choose to spend nothing and save every penny that I earn, I will have paid relatively little.
It should be made much harder for individuals to hide their cash offshore and corporations should pay sensible amounts of tax on their profits but, the bottom line is that the cash will need to come from somewhere and you cant tax those with nothing and therefore the burden will rightly fall on those who have most.'"
I don't disagree with a tax system that rises the more you earn - in fact I would raise the personal allowance to £15k straight away for those whose incomes are taxed at the basic rate. The number of individuals/companies with offshore accounts is tiny in the greater scheme of events it really is.
The success of any taxation system is based on fairness and transparency - otherwise it simply will not work - the black economy in the country is colossal - doubt many drug dealers are paying their taxes, how many jobs have you had done at home for cash etc. It was no surprise that as the government lowered CT revenues began to increase.
The problem you have is tax is a global entity and as such unless it is the same everywhere you will find the clever are capable of protecting the interests of those who employ them and governments deliberately leave loop holes in legislation.
It is very likely that those who benefit most from unearned income would be those who pay IT at the higher rates, they will run bigger cars, have more expensive insurance policies, better furnishings etc - all of which will have seen them contribute far more over their life than someone who perhaps gambles their money, spends it on prostitutes or gambles it away?
