Working as we do to highlight the massive cost of the Government's tax policies, we often get asked how people and businesses can spread the word. One great way to do so is for businesses to adopt a policy of producing full tax receipts, so that their customers find out exactly how much tax they are paying.
Normally, receipts will mention the amount of VAT paid by the customer, but National Insurance, Income Tax, Corporation Tax, Business Insurance Tax, Climate Levy, Landfill Tax and all sorts of other taxes also push up the cost to the customer and reduce the money that actually goes to the business in question.
As well as making a political point about taxation, this also works for the business, too, by demonstrating to customers quite how little of the till price actually goes to them in profit.
One example of the growing number of businesses producing full tax receipts has recently been sent in to me by Michael Van Clarke, who runs a hairdressing business. This receipt is very revealing:
The trend is a growing one, and I would urge any business owner or manager reading this to follow suit. It is simple to do with a till receipt programme, and after a few weeks Michael is apparently starting to see a strong reaction from his customers. He has calculated that:
Of an average bill of £100, more than £13 makes up VAT, over £26 goes towards staff national insurance and income taxes, and almost £9 to over a dozen other business taxes including; rates, insurance tax, climate levy tax and even landfill tax, adding up to £48 of tax - almost half the bill.
He goes on to say:
The feedback from our clients has been amazing. It has come as a shock to see how most people are totally unaware of their true tax charges. Even after the government has taxed our salaries a massive 41% and rising, plus council taxes, vehicle and tv licence taxes etc, as consumers we’re still subject to further rip-off taxes, almost half of our spendable earnings.
Effectively, for every £4 we work hard to earn, over and above our subsistence income, we’re rewarded with a value of £1 spending power….the rest goes to our shamed government. It’s a scandalous situation, and we hope our full tax receipts will go some way to highlighting the state of affairs!
Transparency isn't only important to let people know how their money is spent, but actually to let them know how much tax they really pay.