Why it’s the taxpayer’s fault we’ve got no money
05 Jan 2013
Do you pay your taxes? Do you pay the amount of tax that the law, interpreted by A Reasonable Man, says you should pay? Then it’s your fault the country is so much in debt.
Big companies tend to evade (or avoid, who cares) most of the tax that they owe to the country that they also owe their ability to make money to. Let’s say that the law says they should pay 20% of their True Profits in tax, and that in fact they all end up paying only a tenth of that, so 2% of their True Profits. It may seem there is very little the government can do about this. The corporations can afford expensive lawyers and accountants, who will open up new holes in every piece of legislation faster than the old ones can be closed. HMRC can only collect the full 20% from the smaller companies who can’t afford such legal firepower.
But let’s imagine for a moment that every company was able to evade nine-tenths of their true tax bill. There would then effectively be two constant tax rates across the board – the theoretical 20% that everyone owes, and the actual 2% that everyone pays. We then simply multiply the tax rate by 10 and the true rate is back at 20%, where it needs to be for the country to function properly. The theoretical tax rate is a hefty 200% of annual profits, but since everyone is evading nine tenths of it this doesn’t matter.
The problem is that at the moment only the super rich companies are bothering to do their bit and shave off their nine tenths. The state’s hands are tied by the smaller, leeching businesses who don’t care about their tax bills and instead focus only on such valueless activities as ‘products’ and ‘customers’. This leaves us with a clear solution. For the good of the economy, the state and the dispossessed, the government needs to start training more tax accountants and corporate lawyers, effective immediately. If the marketplace for tax evasion can be democratised and made available to all businesses, regardless of size, location or marketplace, then, and only then, can Britain become great again.
Do you pay your taxes? Do you pay the amount of tax that the law, interpreted by A Reasonable Man, says you should pay? Then it’s your fault the country is so much in debt.
Big companies tend to evade (or avoid, who cares) most of the tax that they owe to the country that they also owe their ability to make money to. Let’s say that the law says they should pay 20% of their True Profits in tax, and that in fact they all end up paying only a tenth of that, so 2% of their True Profits. It may seem there is very little the government can do about this. The corporations can afford expensive lawyers and accountants, who will open up new holes in every piece of legislation faster than the old ones can be closed. HMRC can only collect the full 20% from the smaller companies who can’t afford such legal firepower.
But let’s imagine for a moment that every company was able to evade nine-tenths of their true tax bill. There would then effectively be two constant tax rates across the board – the theoretical 20% that everyone owes, and the actual 2% that everyone pays. We then simply multiply the tax rate by 10 and the true rate is back at 20%, where it needs to be for the country to function properly. The theoretical tax rate is a hefty 200% of annual profits, but since everyone is evading nine tenths of it this doesn’t matter.
The problem is that at the moment only the super rich companies are bothering to do their bit and shave off their nine tenths. The state’s hands are tied by the smaller, leeching businesses who don’t care about their tax bills and instead focus only on such valueless activities as ‘products’ and ‘customers’. This leaves us with a clear solution. For the good of the economy, the state and the dispossessed, the government needs to start training more tax accountants and corporate lawyers, effective immediately. If the marketplace for tax evasion can be democratised and made available to all businesses, regardless of size, location or marketplace, then, and only then, can Britain become great again.