Anyone watching the fuel debate?

paulmapp8306

I have said before (and yes I know there are potential issues - nothings perfect), why not make tax easy.

Income tax - thats. Nothing else. no VAT, No NI, No duty. Make income tax 50% or so to make up for the loss of the other tax's. government revinue stays the same, what you pay in is directly linked to what you earn (low earner pay less - high earners pay more), and theres no room for stealth tax's. If the government want more revinue they change income tax levels - and everyone can see it.

Youd also save a fortune administering the Tax system.

Graham_Devon

Just read the bit about 2 cars being a luxury.

While I have some sympathy towards that argument, I don't think it's that clear cut.

With a family, in rural areas, it could be argued that actually 2 cars is not essential per se, but, you'd make life unnecessarily difficult for yourself.

Say 2 kids, 2 parents. One has a part time job, the other a full time job.

1 kid needs to get to school 2 miles away, the other needs to get to nursery 1 mile away. Parent needs to get to part time work in Next in the out of town shopping centre. Other parent has taken the one car to work.

Life would be difficult. Public transport might work, walking might work (i.e. in terms of distance), but I don't think people take into consideration timings when one child has to be somewhere different to the other, but within half an hour of each other. A car sorts this issue. Walking makes it practically impossible. Public transport just wouldn't work in this scenario unless buses are every 5 minutes on the particular route you need to take.

This is real life, not some kind of extreme example.

Plus without the second car, other parent can't even get to Next to go to work. Not if they want to get back on time to pick their child up from school and nursery.

It's possible to do all this without a second car, but like I say, it makes life very very difficult, and I'd say unnecessarily difficult in some cases. I.e. if you can run a second car, do it as by not doing it you are actually making life for you and your family worse by your own actions.

Every family is different. But I don't know many that have such perfect situations meaning one can bike / walk to work, while the 2 kids need to be in the same place at the same time etc and the other parent can also simply walk to or bike to work.

Also depends on where you live. A big town will make the above scenario much easier than a smaller town that has decent services on direct routes, but outside of that direct route you are left with changes for buses, which can often include long waits.

ILW

How much of the price is attributable to to all this "green" cobblers?

CLAPTON

paulmapp8306 wrote: »

I have said before (and yes I know there are potential issues - nothings perfect), why not make tax easy.

Income tax - thats. Nothing else. no VAT, No NI, No duty. Make income tax 50% or so to make up for the loss of the other tax's. government revinue stays the same, what you pay in is directly linked to what you earn (low earner pay less - high earners pay more), and theres no room for stealth tax's. If the government want more revinue they change income tax levels - and everyone can see it.

Youd also save a fortune administering the Tax system.

the difficulty of a single tax is that some people could avoid it altogether
so e.g a self employed person now pays tax and NI on their profit
but they can avoid income tax by setting up a limited company and paying themselves dividend; currently that's caught by corporation tax
captains of industry would ensure they make a lot of capital gains rather than income so; currently they have to pay cgt;
there are people in the black economy who pay no NI or income tax

so by having VAT and council tax and fuel tax everyone has to pay something

not perfect of course

ILW

paulmapp8306 wrote: »

I have said before (and yes I know there are potential issues - nothings perfect), why not make tax easy.

Income tax - thats. Nothing else. no VAT, No NI, No duty. Make income tax 50% or so to make up for the loss of the other tax's. government revinue stays the same, what you pay in is directly linked to what you earn (low earner pay less - high earners pay more), and theres no room for stealth tax's. If the government want more revinue they change income tax levels - and everyone can see it.

Youd also save a fortune administering the Tax system.

What many do not realise is that a majority of full time workers are already paying close to 50% income tax at the moment. it is just hidden by using employers and employees contributions to make it look less obvious.

reweird

andybenw wrote: »

Depends where you live. Where I am now even in a city a car makes the difference between a 25 minute and a 1 and a half hour journey too work. In the countryside if both partners are working 2 cars would almost certainly be a necessity.

No you can car share. I know I come from the country. As stated a 2 car family is most definitely a luxury not a necessity. The reason you and others see it as a necessity is due to peoples maligned sense of entitlement that just because both partners work that they both deserve to get to work in their own vehicle. This is a complete fallacy. Any more than 1 car is a luxury, countryside or not.

ILW

Me and the missus have 3 cars.

I have one, she has one and we have a little sports car as a weekend toy.

Probably just one is totally necessary.

The whole lot are not worth 10 grand between them.

Dan:_4

ILW wrote: »

Me and the missus have 3 cars.

I have one, she has one and we have a little sports car as a weekend toy.

Probably just one is totally necessary.

The whole lot are not worth 10 grand between them.

At least you don't need to use the tube, eh?

ILW

Dan: wrote: »

At least you don't need to use the tube, eh?

Very rarely. Thank god.

Do use the DLR though, the drivers never threaten to go on strike.

Ditto

Regarding public transport...don't people use taxi's?

If you have one car between two people obviously the person who travels furthest, and more often, would have the car. The other person could use a private hire taxi, which you can book to pick you up, or a black cab.

If you worked and needed to use a private hire taxi, to take you there and pick you up, could you not have a contract with the taxi firm? You would know you have guarenteed travel and the taxi firm know they have a guarenteed fare.
If you had the above you wouldn't need the associated costs of running a second car - initial price of car, depreciation, servicing, mot, insurance, wear and tear etc