Tories are lying *******s (warning may contain traces of Tory)

[Hibernia&Alba]

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It’s not really tho. The concept is pretty simple, put a tax too high and people do all they can to avoid it. Put it at a ‘sensible’ level and it’s not worth the effort so it’s paid.

I reckon IHT is a great example where the tax is too high so huge effort goes into avoiding it. Simplify and lower and the tax take would go up.

There is also plenty of examples of flat rate taxes raising more money than complex high tariffs. Georgia for example enacted a huge tax reform in the early 2000’s that removed taxes, lowered others and essentially simplified the whole system...it resulted in a doubling of revenue within 5 years.

BoJo’s proposal is crude and far too simplistic of course but hey what’s new when it comes to that dude...

Didn't Georgia have to be bailed out by the federal government under Obama, when its tax 'reforms' went tits up and basic public services had to be slashed? I remember watching a report on The Young Turks about slashing taxes and its consequences, and I'm sure the state in question was Georgia! That's the state the Republican Governor was also responsible for overseeing his own re-election, refused to recuse himself, scrubbed hundreds of thousands of people in Democratic areas from the electoral rolls and won by a tiny margin? Brian Kemp.

Those who defend this idea of lower taxes increasing revenue never tell us the optimum rate. As I said previously, if taxes are reduced to zero, income is zero; so what is the tax rate, as a percentage, which maximises income?

Also, flat rate taxation is totally regressive and massively favours the wealthiest, so what happens to the cherished equality of opportunity when ever more wealth, and by extension, power, is concentrated in ever fewer hands? I don't see how it is compatible with a thriving democracy, which requires some degree of equality. How does that sit with income maximisation? We have two issues running parallel. And I would add it's a situation we are once again seeing played out in Britain, where the leading contender for prime minister is yet another Old Etonian. A tiny number of very wealthy hereditary millionaires form the political establishment, which undermines democracy. 99.999 per cent of us didn't attend Eton, but we spend much of our lives governed by them and their interests.