[SOC] expensive place

[Paul Bartlett]

Carlos has a point. We do have an extensive social support system that needs
paying for. Doesn't work terribly well though.

The current administration has hiked the tax burden substantially.

'Tax freedom day". The day in the year when you stop paying income to the
government and start getting it yourself (averaged over the year) has moved
from May 27 in 1997 when the current administration came to office to 9 June
in 2000. It's moved further ahead since but I don't have the figures for
2004.

The thing that *really* pisses us off is that gasoline is subject firstly to
"fuel duty" paid to Customs and Excise. And then it's subject to VAT (sales
tax which also goes to the Excise) which is charged on the whole amount.
It's a "double whammy". We're taxed on the tax they've applied.

So when the Chancellor announces in his budget speech in the Commons that
fuel duty is to be raised by (say) 2p a gallon he omits to say that the
income generated for the government's coffers is actually 2.35p a gallon.

The taxation system is also so bloody complicated that it consumes a
substantial proportion of GDP simply to service it.

My own personal opinion is that *ALL* taxation should be levied using VAT.
Tax according to how you consume. You'd lose massive amounts of beaurocracy.
Live a modest lifestyle and you'd pay little tax. Live a profligate one and
you pay lots.

End rant.

Paul :-|


----- Original Message -----
From: "Carlos J Caro" <ccaro3 at juno.com>
To: <soc at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Saturday, June 05, 2004 5:18 AM
Subject: Re: [SOC] expensive place


>
> > You should be grateful you live that side of the 'pond'. Here we
> > regularly pay
> > 80 pence a litre which is currently $1.50 ish. For a US gallon, that
> > equates to
> > around $5.45.
>
>  Ray
>
> Lets not overlook the fact that in Gt. Britain you have a cradle
> to grave social support system. The funds for that in part come
> from the $3.30 tax on each gallon. We on the other hand don't
> get anything for the taxes we pay on gasoline so we want them
> and the price of gas low. As soon as the news stated that OPEC
> was going to increase production by ten percent, I noticed a 3
> cents drop in price this past week. That tells me that the price
> increase has nothing to do with Iraq but rather speculators
> running the cost up.
>
> Regards,
>
> Carlos
> _______________________________________________
> SOC mailing list
> SOC at mailman.qth.net
> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/soc
>
> Mailman: User Guide for List Subscribers
> http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm