Bristol Mayor George Ferguson seems intent on hurting motorists in Bristol, regardless of its impact on local traders. Mayor Ferguson is now proposing to raise the cost of business parking permits by up to 400 per cent. He wants local businesses to pay close to £500 per annual customer permit. ‘The whole point is to reduce the amount of traffic on the roads by commuters at peak hours,’ he claims. It’ll certainly help reduce the amount of business in the city. Continue Reading

At a conference on corporate tax avoidance and reputations, Public Accounts Committee chair Margaret Hodge MP backed the TaxPayers’ Alliance position that tax complexity is the root cause of much of the opportunity for tax avoidance in the UK. She told the Oxford Centre for Business Taxation’s conference that:

Simplification is at the heart of tackling tax avoidance and I blame my party just as much as the current government.

It’s great that the TaxPayers’ Alliance message is now established as the most credible critique of the problems relating to tax avoidance and the legitimacy of the system. Complexity leads to misunderstanding, which leads to mistrust. And that encourages people to avoid their own tax because they think others might be getting away with something. So it’s encouraging that this, and the point that complexity so often provides the means for tax avoidance, are being acknowledged. Continue Reading

It has been a very busy few weeks for the TPA grassroots. Last week I attended the inaugural meeting of our new Birmingham Branch. The branch will be holding an action day on 15th June. More details to follow, but if you would like to help, please let me know.

Regular readers of this website will also know that we have a new coordinator in Islington. His name is Henry Zarb, and if you have any stories you would like to share with him, he will be delighted to hear from you.

We are also holding two supporter social evenings next week. The first will be in Cardiff, where I will be joining our Wales Coordinator, Lee Canning, at The Queens Vaults, 29 Westgate Street, Cardiff City Centre, at 7.30pm on Tuesday 21st May. Lee has some great ideas for new campaigns in Wales and would love to hear from you. If you can make it next Tuesday, please let Lee know. It will be great to see you there. Continue Reading

Writing for City A.M. today, I said that we need comprehensive tax simplification from politicians, not more hot air:

THE Public Accounts Committee offered about as much to the debate on tax avoidance yesterday as a hot air balloon offers transport. No clear direction, not a lot of movement, but a lot of hot air.

Instead of a critical dissection of how the system works, and an examination of what might be done to fix any problems, the committee’s chair Margaret Hodge railed angrily against companies like Google operating under the law as it stands, rather than by using her understanding of “common sense”. That’s no substitute for the serious reform we need if we want a tax code that’s fit for purpose.

Click here to read the full article

The TaxPayers’ Alliance has today released a new video highlighting how the UK’s taxes on people’s wages are needlessly complex and obscure. Produced with the team from See what you mean, the video highlights how National Insurance is a second income tax in all but name.

Previous YouGov polling for the TPA has shown that many people are not aware of how much tax they actually pay. The video makes clear the real rates of tax people pay when Employee’s National Insurance and Employer’s National Insurance are factored in.

Basic: Employer’s NI 13.8 % + Income Tax 20 % + Employee’s NI 12% = 40.2%
Higher: Employer’s NI 13.8 % + Income Tax 40 % + Employee’s NI 2% = 49%
Additional: Employer’s NI 13.8 % + Income Tax 45 % + Employee’s NI 2% = 53.4 %

(See below for an explanation of the combined rates)

Polling has also shown that most do not understand the impact of Employer’s National Insurance, which effectively reduces their wages.

Last year the TPA set out how to abolish National Insurance by 2017, which would make the tax system simpler and more transparent. At the 2011 Budget, the Chancellor indicated a desire to merge Income Tax and National Insurance, which Mr Osborne said would be a “historic step to simplify our tax system and make it fit for the modern age”. Unfortunately, the Treasury has thus far failed to publish the work of the Office for Tax Simplification on this topic or come up with any solid proposals.

Matthew Sinclair, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said:

“Taxing the same income three times is a pointless complication which only benefits politicians trying to conceal how much tax people really pay. National Insurance has been nothing more than another Income Tax for years and additional redundant taxes mean higher administrative costs for businesses. The Government can and should merge them into a single tax which would be simpler, fairer and more honest.” 

**Calculations** Employer’s National Insurance is added at the rate of 13.8% on top of gross salary. So if you’re paid another £87.87 of gross salary, the employer has to pay an additional 13.8%, which would be £12.13, That adds up to £100.