One tax

[GuavaHalf]

Income tax, corporation tax, National Insurance, VAT, Excise Duties, Levies, Council Tax. They are all ways for the Government (local and national) to raise the money it needs. If they could all be replaced by a single tax. What should it be and what would be the effect.

[Jeanalesi]

Oh good question. Firstly VAT is an EU creation so I don't think you could incorp that properly into a domestic system. I suppose the best idea would be a super means tested tax. The beaurocracy of it would be a nightmare, but I've always thought it would be a fairer tax than one on consumption like Excise duties or VAT. COuncil tax is another that would benefit from the means testing system. However I expect that it would be quite unpalatable for the UK population to pay their tax into one system as they'd probably be horrified by how much they do pay in various "stealth" taxes. Not that I think this is a bad thing, but I'll start ranting about public services if I'm not careful... So in conclusion we SHOULD have an all incompassing means0tested tax, but the effect would be total rejection by the public unfortunately

[WoWo]

You can have a single tax because we all use various things at different rates. Say for example VAT, if I buy loads of CD's this month and you buy none it wouldn't be fair that you tax bill was the same as mine (essentially a percentage of your earnings). There are some that could be combined and means tested but others not so.

[Yinzer]

Hoe about the "Because I Said So" tax? Seems like all these other taxes are just silly excuses anyway. When one tax goes down, another doubles.