Published in The Times online (here)(£) and in the print edition on Thursday 8 March.
Sir,
Aside from human nature (some might call it greed), deliberate efforts have been made to create a corrosive, anti-taxpaying milieu. Organisations such as the TaxPayers’ Alliance occupy the airwaves with negative messages about government waste; an army of tax accountants and lawyers advise wealthy individuals and companies how best to avoid paying; and few politicians have the guts to advocate clearly the virtues of paying tax.
Perhaps what is needed is a Proud Taxpayers’ Alliance, which not only sets out the civilising benefits in terms of services which taxes enable, but also exposes tax avoidance as a morally dubious practice, and encourages not just the rich, but all citizens to think of what more they can give, financially or practically, to help to get Britain working again. Then we would all be in it together.
John Slinger
Rugby, Warks
Sir,
Aside from human nature (some might call it greed), deliberate efforts have been made to create a corrosive, anti-taxpaying milieu. Organisations such as the TaxPayers’ Alliance occupy the airwaves with negative messages about government waste; an army of tax accountants and lawyers advise wealthy individuals and companies how best to avoid paying; and few politicians have the guts to advocate clearly the virtues of paying tax.
Perhaps what is needed is a Proud Taxpayers’ Alliance, which not only sets out the civilising benefits in terms of services which taxes enable, but also exposes tax avoidance as a morally dubious practice, and encourages not just the rich, but all citizens to think of what more they can give, financially or practically, to help to get Britain working again. Then we would all be in it together.
John Slinger
Rugby, Warks
You should talk to Richard Murphy about setting up one!
ReplyDeleteI may do that. Thanks for the comment Michael.
ReplyDeleteGreat!
ReplyDeleteI wonder if we can learn something from Indian anti-corruption campaigners who are currently fighting for what they term 'personal honesty' (http://www.zerocorruptionday.com/zero-corruption-day) and asking individuals to be honest, in order to slowly change a corrupt system.
In our context, imagine email signatures and facebook profiles which had a simple number which we could be proud of... a percentage figure indicating what proportion of last year's earnings we paid in income tax... revolutionary!
Thanks for this info Sunil.
DeleteIt's a fact that people want to pay less tax. Take the Council tax referendums for instance, people nearly always opt for no or the lowest tax hike.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand the phrase "negative messages government waste". Don't you think government waste is negative and should be exposed?
Don't you think people have the right for their taxes to be spent wisely?
I would support that.
ReplyDeleteGreat!
ReplyDeleteI wonder if we can learn something from Indian anti-corruption campaigners currently calling for a new movement of 'personal honesty' to fight systemic corruption (http://www.zerocorruptionday.com/zero-corruption-day) - in our context, a transparent number (think facebook profiles and email signatures) that I could be proud of - could indicate the proportion of last year's earnings that I paid in income tax. Clear, transparent and revolutionary!
Count me in
ReplyDeleteIt will never catch on . .
ReplyDeleteHave a close look at what Northern labour Councils do with taxpayers money . .
Great idea!
ReplyDelete