A recent report by the Organisation For Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) into the state of the British economy, revealed an interesting fact. While basically supporting the Con-Dem millionaire governments austerity measures and the public services cut-backs, the organization nevertheless said that the government had one of the worst records in the developed world for failing to collect taxes. According to the OECD report, there has been a failure to collect more than 60% of tax revenues.
Clearly, you can`t avoid or evade paying your taxes if you are on PAYE. So who might these people be who don`t pay their full share of the tax burden? Though the current rate of corporation tax in the UK is 28%, it was recently announced that Barclays Bank paid just £113 million in UK corporation tax in 2009 - a year when it made a record £11.6 billion in profits. This amounted to just 1% of its 2009 profits. Barclays boss Bob Diamond, told a Treasury Select committee in January, that Barclays paid £2 billion in taxes to HM Revenue and Customs in 2009, but what he failed to mention, was that most of this, was payroll taxes for the banks employees.
Another company which is highly adept at using tax avoidance measures is Boots the chemist. Apparently its registered office address is a P.O. Box number in Switzerland. By using this measure, the company saves billions of pound in taxes - yet another tax loophole.
With all these tax scams going on, is it any wonder that public services and state benefits, are being cut in the UK. If these greedy capitalist bastards paid their fare share of taxes, perhaps we could keep the public toilets open in Manchester, as well as the libraries, and the pensioners and disabled could keep their free bus passes.
This week it was reported in the national press that the state pension in austerity Britain (£97.65 a week) is among the meanest in the developed world and the the British have to wait longer than people in any other industrialised country before they retire. Pensioners in the UK, receive state pensions worth around 41.5% of average after-tax earnings. This is lower than Spain where the state pension is 84.9% of average earnings and Italy where it is 75.3% of average earnings. In France the state pension is 60.4% of average earnings and Germany 57.9%. By 2050, the UK`s retirement age (68), will be the highest in the world.
Despite all the bluster from the likes of Vince Cable about closing tax loopholes and cracking down on bankers bonuses, next week, George (we`re all in it together) Osborne, is expected to announce in his budget speech, that he`s going to slash the taxes paid by major corporations on their foreign earnings as part of his 'budget for growth'. But what would you expect from a government of millionaires working in the interests of millionaires.
Friday 18 March 2011
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Talking of pensions, did you know that the Prime Minister only has to spend 3 months in office to become entitled to a pension at retirement which pays half his salary?
And that MPs have to work only 20 years to retire on their full salary?
And that most public sector workers would have to work for 80 years to become entitled to their full salary at retirement?
In his budget speech this week, George Osborne, remarked that in future the state pension age would be linked in some way to life expectancy. Some newpapers are now reporting that a person who is now under 30 years, will have to wait until they are 70 before they can retire. What Osborne didn`t mention in his budget speech, is that the winter fuel top-ups have been scrapped by the Con-Dem millionaires government. For the past 3 years, the £400 payment has been topped up by £50 for people over 60 and by £100 for those aged over 80.
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