There will be announcements about overhauls to the benefits system, health and education and there will be gerrymandering of the electoral system.However, following yesterdays announcements about £6.2 billion pounds cuts in the public sector and further swingeing cuts to come, you might think that an overhaul of our tax system might be in order, especially given that it is estimated that as much as £120 billion pounds a year goes uncollected or is the subject of tax avoidance and fraud. Indeed, this revenue shortfall is some 20 times the value of the cuts already announced and around three quarters of the total national defecit! But an overhaul of a tax system seems to be nowhere on the ConDems agenda. Now why is that?
Each and every one of us, civil and public servants pays our tax and national insurance at source. Further, due to the nature of the beast, our employer ensures that we, each and every one of us, fulfills our council tax obligations. This is pretty much the case for every other 'employed' person in the country... that is around 90% of the population that pays its tax and NI at source.
So who is it that does not pay, avoids or otherwise defrauds the revenue of something like three-quarters the total national debt? Well, that would be the richest 10%. The backers and controllers of the ConDems... and in the case of the cabinet, well, nearly all of them.
It is quite clear that the increasing wealth of the top earners (estimated at around 30% last year) has been derived directly from the public purse in its support to the ailing financial institutions. There was no discernable growth in the economy, the markets fell and property prices remained largely stagnant. The only source of monies since 2008 has been the public injection of cash into the banks and finance institutions. Therefore it is from our taxes that their wealth has come. Surely they should pay tax on it, like the rest of us have done? After all, we are all in this together!
