Taxation - The time is right for a review

Taxation is never popular amongst voters and anything other than a reduction in taxation is always an unpopular move. The reality of taxation is that it is one of those necessary evils. If we all want to send our children to school, receive immediate medical treatment without having to hand over your card first, if you want to drive on roads rather than stone chippings and be safe from crime and terrorism then taxation is needed.

In 2008 the budget estimate for income from taxation was just over half a trillion pounds (approximately £541bn). The vast majority of the income, 72.9%, came from income tax, national insurance contributions, value added tax and corporation tax.

Under the current system there are twenty four different taxes. The taxation system is overly complicated and bureaucratic. I would like a review of the taxes.

The purpose of the review is to look at all the taxes collected, the income they raise for the government and whether they are still appropriate. In addition to this I would like to see the cost of collecting the taxes including those who make payments on time as well as the cost of recovering bad debts to see which methods are the most efficient in the collection of taxes. I would look to see whether any of the taxes can be merged to reduce the cost of collection. Finally I would like to see where the taxes are used and whether they are the best use of the taxes.

The review would also look at the government departments responsible for the collection of taxes to see whether it would be appropriate for all taxes to be collected by one central department rather than government departments and councils etc.

On Twitter? Why not post me your questions : @ThePMCandidate

Email : realchangerealpeople@ymail.com

The Candidate

EU - Do we stay or do we go?

The European Union (EU) is an economic and a political partnership between twenty seven member states, one of which is the UK. The work carried out by the EU and it’s member states covers a variety of functions including military operations, economic partnerships and legislation to name but a few.

The EU and our membership is a topic of hot debate as much in the House of Commons as it is on street corners and cafes across the country. Personally I can see the benefits to being a member but I can also see some of the downsides.

The EU benefits the UK in many forms including subsidies, mutual trade agreements, a greater international presence, greater protection from co-operation in law enforcement, greater protection for the environment by setting mutual targets and finally according to a report from the South Bank University around 3.5 million people’s employment is dependent upon the UK’s membership to the EU.

With all the positives there are naturally going to come some negatives and these are generally certain EU rules and regulations appear to be excessive and inefficient, the EU has a great deal of power to create laws which affect the UK with very little oversight from the UK government and as with any large group or gathering items take longer to be implemented and implementation can at times be overly bureaucratic. Whilst these are obviously negative I think the two main negative aspects are the loss of UK sovereignty in the form of the right to control its own borders and legislation and the EU is completely unaccountable to the public in the UK.

According to The Telegraph (1) in November 2011, the UKIP indicated that the EU cost Britain £50m per day or £18.4bn per year. This is clearly an incredible amount of money if this estimate is right and it does beg the question whether or not the money could be more effectively used inside our country rather than being given away.

The trade agreements that currently exist for EU member states promote greater trade between member states and if we were to leave the EU then we would ultimately be putting trade at risk. That said, I believe trade agreements could be created between the UK and the EU member states, but this could affect employment in the short term.

The decision of whether to stay within the EU or to opt out is one which I believe is far too big for one person, one party or one government to make. The outcome of any decision will last far longer than any government and will have long lasting effects for decades to come. I believe this decision should be subject to a referendum.

To ensure that the referendum is fair I would put together two research groups. The first would be a pro-EU research group and the other being a pro-non EU group. Both groups would produce a document indicating the positives and negatives of being a member of the EU and the positives and negatives of leaving the EU. This information would be published direct to government websites and in to public libraries and councils so that the public at large can view the whole documents.

The documents would be independent of any government scrutiny; therefore they would be made available as direct transfers from the two groups. We would allow enough time for the documents to be reviewed by the public and we would then hold a referendum.

On Twitter? Why not post me your questions : @ThePMCandidate

Email : realchangerealpeople@ymail.com

The Candidate

(1)    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/8911689/EU-costs-Britain-50m-a-day-Ukip-claims.html