A bit of pub philosophising here – or rather the outcome of a discussion at the weekend over a few jars – but what would get this country further up in arms over all issues relating to tax?
One gem is to abolish what is called ‘withholding’ – the policy of automatically taking income tax from people’s pay cheques. Now I know there are positive and negatives to abolishing withholding. The efficiency argument is there, that if the income tax is taken automatically then there need not be form filling and the payment can be instant and much smoother.
However, one of the reasons the anti-income tax movement has embraced the Fair Tax in the United States, is down to cross-the-board hatred of filling in tax returns. If you have to sit down and write out a cheque each month to the government, it’s a deliberate task that requires thought. You write out any cheque and you contemplate where it’ll go, what it’s spent on and used for, whether it’s a cheque for utilities and the like.
Now factor that in with government and having taxpayers write out a cheque every month to the government and you might get a lot more people asking – “where’s my money going?”
Just a thought.