We know him from playing a butcher in Coronation Street but John Savident – who starred as Fred Elliot in the soap – wants to take Elliott’s clever to the British tax code.
In an interview with the Times Savident explains how he’d like to “scrap” the tax code, especially inheritance tax, a tax Savident describes as “so unfair”.
Rather unsurprisingly, we agree.
Running at over 10,000 pages, the British tax code is one of the longest in the Western world. With so many exemptions and loopholes, only the most intensely trained accountants and tax lawyers can get to grips with it. People barely understand how to apply for the tax breaks or credits they deserve. And that’s just trying to get your money back.
To add insult to injury, too few can avoid the taxman’s net. As Savident says, inheritance tax affects those it was never meant to catch. Council tax leaves too many pensioners having to choose between their daily basics and paying the tax. Then there’s stamp duty, VAT, National Insurance, so many taxes that, when you rack them all up, you sympathise with Savident in saying we should just get rid of it and start again.
