Where does our tax money go?

gfplux

A_Medium_Size_Jock wrote: »

It is the job of the media to sell their stories.
Bad news (whether factual & entirely correct or not) sells.
Good news however does not make a good headline.
And yet again, we choose to make the overall tax take low.
The fact that you ignore previous comments about this in your own thread will not have been missed by others either, I suspect.

That is not to say that the UK is perfect.
Show me a country that is?
Given however your place of residence why not concentrate on your own difficulties?

Education in Luxembourg is (for example) said to be, and I quote, "horrendously expensive"; why not use your taxes to offset cheaper provision?
Your welfare too is recognised as being unsustainable; why do you not do something about that?
http://www.sgi-network.org/2014/Luxembourg/Key_Challenges

Luxembourg too has prison uprisings, so your system too is imperfect it seems:
https://www.wort.lu/en/luxembourg/justice-minister-schrassig-director-cause-of-luxembourg-prison-uprising-is-mystery-57cee56bac730ff4e7f6605a

Oh look, you can have crowded trains too:
https://www.wort.lu/en/luxembourg/monday-technical-fault-triggers-rush-hour-chaos-on-luxembourg-trains-58ec743ba5e74263e13ad527


I said on another thread, you're beginning to look like the forum equivalent of a double glazing salesman.

I rarely read your posts as they don't contain much fact.
Sometimes you are spreading fake news by omission.

I want to point out that PRIVATE education in Luxembourg is very expensive just like Britain. STATE EDUCATION is totally free conducted in well appointed building with plenty of equipment and small classes in both Primary and Secondary. The University of Luxembourg founded in 2003 is growing in stature and attracting many international students (some from the UK I believe) Unlike the U.K. The cost is virtually zero to study for Bachelor and Master degrees.

You are perfectly correct the Luxembourg prison system has been heavily criticised particularly for overcrowding and that is not due to change until new facility's are finished shortly.

The HUGELY generous welfare provisions, pensions, unemployment and sickness benefits are certainly unsustainable and a crisis is due in 40/50 years time.

Travel is illuminating don't you find.

kabayiri

gfplux wrote: »

...
Travel is illuminating don't you find.

Indeed.

Have you travelled to other tax havens then?

I'm curious to know how Juncker can worry about Ireland's low corporation tax rates, particularly after years of supporting extremely tax friendly policy in Luxembourg directed at corporates.

Is he a hypocrite do you think?

michaels

I understand that Luxembourg uses a deliberately 'competitive' VAT rate and EU single market rules to ensure that transactions take place there rather than in the buyer and seller country thus boosting local tax revenue whilst reducing tax take elsewhere so perhaps if Amazon transactions had happened in the uk rather than Luxembourg the UK tax take would have been higher.

I also seem to recall that Luxembourg was also being investigated for unfair corporation tax deals amounting to ilegal state subsidies which it used to lure multinationals to make their base in Luxembourg where they avoided other European countries' taxes.

So where should the op look to see why raising taxes can be tricky?

kabayiri

michaels wrote: »

...
So where should the op look to see why raising taxes can be tricky?

Yep. I wonder where...

Major companies employ highly paid specialists to minimize their tax bill, sometimes going to extreme lengths.

At least we know what these employees are paid to do.

The politicians in charge of places like Luxembourg (past and present) aid these companies to game the taxation authorities of the Western world.

There are other examples in the EU, including the famous Dutch EU sandwich.

A_Medium_Size_Jock

gfplux wrote: »

I rarely read your posts as they don't contain much fact.
Sometimes you are spreading fake news by omission.

Others reading your posts and threads see also what is posted.
Let them judge.
From the responses so far it is very easy to see exactly who submits posts without much in the way of fact and also omits much.
That would be YOU btw.

You see, my posts almost always contain links to support what I'm saying.
Look through yours; your evidence is where?

Again - in the hope that this time it registers - just because you happen not to like it or disagree with it does not make it incorrect or invalid.

Here's another about your schools:

An OECD report has issued a set of recommendations and criticism on the current state of Luxembourg schools, giving input to the ongoing debate about the school reform.

https://www.wort.lu/en/luxembourg/oecd-issues-advice-on-luxembourg-education-system-50a66102e4b023430fcba106

See?
Luxembourg schools aren't perfect either.
Quelle surprise.
As for your university, perhaps you could advise of it's place in world rankings since it is "growing in stature"?


Now, why are you not concentrating on these problems in your own country rather than in a country you do not (and do not wish to, you say) live in?

wotsthat

GreatApe wrote: »

We do have excellence we just dont want to call it that

That share of GDP the government spends/borrows is not the important metric, the important metric is how much goods and services we can buy (or get for 'free' from the government) with a typical uk income.

By that metric we are near the top of the tables especially when you exclude the 'lucky' countries which have high gdp/capita due to high natural resources/capita places like norway/qatar/kuwait etc

How would you measure that? 'We' give the government, say, £100, they give us £75 back and £25 is the cost of turning 100% of our money into 75% of our money? A metric of excellence based on the amount of money taken in taxes and given back isn't really a measure of anything. A fruit machine does the same thing.

I see the argument but think it's flawed logic because there's an assumption that the government are best placed to decide what services we need and to deliver them when the reality is they're not. Therefore in many cases we'd be better off if the government took less money off us and we either found a supplier in the private sector or, for many items, decide it's not a service of value to us.

It's obvious the idea is flawed because although we may sit atop your table of excellence the roads really are poor, healthcare isn't good enough and government slows down all decision making.

gfplux

kabayiri wrote: »

Indeed.

Have you travelled to other tax havens then?

I'm curious to know how Juncker can worry about Ireland's low corporation tax rates, particularly after years of supporting extremely tax friendly policy in Luxembourg directed at corporates.

Is he a hypocrite do you think?

He's a Politician

gfplux

A_Medium_Size_Jock wrote: »

Others reading your posts and threads see also what is posted.
Let them judge.
From the responses so far it is very easy to see exactly who submits posts without much in the way of fact and also omits much.
That would be YOU btw.

You see, my posts almost always contain links to support what I'm saying.
Look through yours; your evidence is where?

Again - in the hope that this time it registers - just because you happen not to like it or disagree with it does not make it incorrect or invalid.

Here's another about your schools:
https://www.wort.lu/en/luxembourg/oecd-issues-advice-on-luxembourg-education-system-50a66102e4b023430fcba106

See?
Luxembourg schools aren't perfect either.
Quelle surprise.
As for your university, perhaps you could advise of it's place in world rankings since it is "growing in stature"?


Now, why are you not concentrating on these problems in your own country rather than in a country you do not (and do not wish to, you say) live in?

Thank you for that link that is FIVE YEARS OLD.

A_Medium_Size_Jock

gfplux wrote: »

Thank you for that link that is FIVE YEARS OLD.

I would welcome you providing something more recent.
It's strange isn't it how Luxembourg doesn't actually provide much in the way in information regarding this - or indeed many other everyday things?
I wonder why?
Feel free to hunt and post your findings.

Thrugelmir

gfplux wrote: »

Travel is illuminating don't you find.

Agree totally. Though always reach a point when I miss home. Sounds as if you do too. With your constant hankering.

Precisely how much much tax do you contribute to the UK Exchequer. As an expat cannot be very much. If you did contribute I would understand the title and purpose of your thread. Luxembourg must be a dull place to live if posting negatively on here is the highlight of your day.