Governments this century in the U.K. have delighted in increasing burdens on business and interfering in what companies can make and sell and how they do it. For much of the time the EU dreamed up most of the interfering for a U.K. establishment that went along with much of it. More recently governments have copied more EU laws or thought up some of their own.
The Thatcher government had a period when it got rid of a tax every budget, seeking to reduce the number of meddling low yielding high cost taxes. Now a combination of seeking more revenue and a fatal fascination with trying to change how companies and people behave has produced a welter of sector or behaviour specific taxes.
Business has to pay environmental levies, windfall taxes, emissions trading charges and the climate change levy on its energy, helping make the U.K. a high cost energy country and leading to the rapid run down of energy intensive business. There are planning fees, stamp duties,the aggregates levy on building. There is a landfill tax, a plastics packaging tax, a soft drinks levy, and a digital services tax. Ā Travel incurs an Air Passenger duty, insurance a premium tax, ATOL licence fees, new car taxes and VED. Business generally pays an Apprentice levy, pays for the Pension Protection fund,. There is a betting and gaming levy. There is a better point to paying Land Registry fees and Company House fees to ensure title and company information when considering counter parties.
Many of these taxes yield modest revenue, but all imply politicians know better than business Ā and their customers, and say that without tax and regulation there would be bad outcomes. Each of these has a compliance cost for affected businesses, and for businesses that find out they do not need to comply.
This large top heavy edifice makes it more difficult for new and small businesses, and can tip large business into investing elsewhere. Most businesses know they need to look after their employees, be good neighbours and sell safe and good products. The Ā minority of bad performers are law breakers, as it is against the general law to treat employees badly, to sell unsafe products or to damage the local environment. It does not need this blanket of targeted taxes to make these basic points.
August 22, 2024
Good morning.
The State needs taxes to reclaim the money it has printed. Too much money equals too many taxes.
Regulation is usually done at and above government level and is supported mostly by big business as it affects smaller ones and reduces competition. Governments love regulation as they can then charge fees for registration and compliance. It also provides nice jobs for their mates.
The question has to be about balance. When governments get into the habit of spending and borrowing too much in order to bribe the electorate, the downturn is usually not far behind.
Currently we have a government that, much like the last, is not using its powers and position wisely. We don’t need carbon capture or giant wind turbines. We don’t need to send billions to foreign countries whilst depriving the old of basic needs. People are listening in disgust at a government, much like the last, saying that we have to cut this and that, whilst throwing money we supposedly don’t have elsewhere.
It is clearly doing all the bad things first hoping that, in four or fives years time we will have forgotten. We won’t !
August 22, 2024
Every budget is balance you either pay in taxes, or inflation or in borrowing (deferred taxes) so keep your eye on government spending as that is what matters and how much of it is wasted. Most of it is specially for the last 30 odd years, much of it does very significant net harms. The ERM, the lockdowns, the net harm vaccines, HS2, hotels for migrants, renewable subsidies, COP conferences, soft loans for duff degrees, blairās counterproductive wars, Cameron bombing Libya, over regulation everwhere, PPE and covid loan frauds, PPE fraudā¦
August 22, 2024
Blair was the point where so much of the scourge began, with so many of those voting for him not realising until decades later.
August 22, 2024
Blair/Brown era a total disaster – not a single positive that I can find. David Starkey videos very good on this. Even May had one positive of opt out organ donation (just one alas) all rather outweighed by jet net Zero insanity and her appalling Brexit betrayal.
August 22, 2024
1.2 million legal migrants allowed over the last year!! 68,000 illegal economic immigrants allowed right to stay here that is before they allow their families here as well!!
August 23, 2024
In a democracy, organ donation should be opt in.
August 22, 2024
And things will only get worse with the communists residing in Westminster now. Wait until we have digital currency and the government can control ALL spending and prevent non authorised purchases.
See what generation Z thinks of that.
August 22, 2024
IW :
The communists will be able to con generation Z into accepting these restrictions on their freedoms and reduced living standards by convincing them that it is all necessary to save the planet. So indoctrinated and dumbed down by our academia and MSM (BBC) are generation Z that they cannot even think why Net Zero impoverishment and restrictions are necessary to save the planet when other countries such as China, India, Indonesia et al continue to emit CO2 in ever larger quantities.
August 22, 2024
I was particularly amused (i.e. shocked) by the latest revelations on foreign aid, that we had paid for an opera company (female empowerment reasons) in China and cycle paths (saving the planet) in Mexico, both areas of their respective countries which have higher living standards than some parts of the UK.
August 22, 2024
Cycling & walking does not āsave the planetā it is powered by very inefficient human food. Both produces more CO2 per mile than a full car as so much energy goes into to producing human food. Also CO2 is not causing any climate emergency anyway. Plus walking and cycling are about 10 times more deadly and lots of energy in needed to run hospitals and do operations. In short it is all lies B/S.
August 22, 2024
The Ukrainians have boomed an oil & kerosene depot in Rostov Russia (day 4 of fire), probably more co2 released in that massive explosion and fire, arguably more than every motor vehicle in the UK in the past decade ā¦.whereās the net-zero balance
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9qgyenzwzyo
August 22, 2024
You couldn’t make it up !
August 22, 2024
Why does the State not reel in its own budget to āreclaim the money it has printedā?
The economy will crash and to try to āsave itā Iām betting they will print.
August 22, 2024
Guido points out Rachel Thieves has taken BoE losses off the balance sheet!! It would be better to stop the losses rather than hide it from Taxpayers!!
August 22, 2024
Indeed deregulation and easy hire and fine is a win, win for businesses and even for employees. In effect it is a tax cut without any tax loss for the government. It improves productivity, creates more jobs and thus helps employees too. Why should good employees have to carry feckless or poor ones that cannot easily be fired without tribunal risk? Note No limit for Discrimination on grounds of ā race, sex, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief, age. So the lawyers will invariably try to make it one of these. Once again two tier justice written into the law.
Fewer regulation means fewer people needed in the state sector too. So a win, win for all but the parasitic job creators in the state sector and the law who need to be fired so as to get productive jobs.
We need an organisation for the elimination of parasitic jobs huge numbers are in the UK. Then again we had Osbornes office of tax simplification for about 13 years. It cost millions yet tax complexity doubled! Bonuses all round no doubt.
August 22, 2024
Easy hire and fire I meant. Needless to say we had 14 years of the Tories going in the reverse direction and now far worse from Labour. They go on about āgrowthā but their every policy (other than relaxing some planning) is hugely anti-growth, anti-productivity and anti-jobs. Especially more employment laws, higher taxes and the net zero ārenewablesā lunacy.
August 22, 2024
Employers should hire and fire whom they like. If employees add value to the business, they are worth keeping. If they donāt, they add waste at customersā expense, dragging the business down.
August 22, 2024
Exactly and if they are good but fired they will find another job easily anyway. The best protection for employees is loads of available jobs. Easy hire and fire mean loads of available jobs for anyone who is prepared to work.
August 22, 2024
Companies want to hire immigrants who work harder for less (but tax payers have to pick up huge costs for what immigrants cost long-term). Got to include this in overall analysis and not ignore and come up with a solution?
August 22, 2024
More disasters?
Labour may be plotting a devastating plan to make millions tax prisoners in their own homes
Political outriders are laying the ground for a new assault on property
ALLISTER HEATH today.
August 22, 2024
Good piece by Rees Mogg (and one of his sons) GBNews on the very sad deaths on the Bayesian Yacht. People who come out rather badly quite a few – Blairās appalling US extradition treaty, the UK high court judge, Priti Patel for allowing the extradition, the ship designers for having such a tall ostentatious but rather impractical mast. Did it have a simple circa Ā£10 alarm to remind you to lower the keel fully in windy weather?
So was the keel up or down? I assume it must surely have been, at least partially, up. Mast was fully intact as I expected it to be, had it bloke it would have prob. helped (shortening the leaver) but why would it have broken always seems unlikely. Lighting not very likely to break it as the aluminium conducts very well to the sea? More decent engineers please. Parliament and politics especially is stuffed with people totally ignorant of science, engineering, logic, maths, real economics, businessā¦ Most have none beyond age 16. Major had not even anyat 16! This only a tiny handful were against Mayās economically suicidal net zero insanity or Milibandās Cimate Change Act lunacy!
August 22, 2024
Bayesian inference & Bayesian probability are quite interesting (and often financially profitable if used well) if you have that sort of brain. The maths of very tall masts acting as levers, wind forces, raised keels and hulls filling rapidly with water perhaps sadly a bit more obvious. Build a model in the bath and blow.
August 22, 2024
Tall mast/ sails and side on to a strong win not a good idea.
August 22, 2024
And prob. with the keel up and “windows” all open. A Ā£20 alarm saying alarm – put the keel down as is is getting a bit windy – would almost certainly have saved all the lives and the boat.
August 22, 2024
The same goes for personal finance targeting – all tax and savings allowances cut right back by Hunt and Sunak over the last 2 years. Criticised by Labour in opposition but now only too happy to embrace it all.
With regards business and industry the plethora of regulations is stifling. Nonetheless successful business sectors such as finance and tech flourish in the UK.
August 22, 2024
Absolutely spot on!
August 22, 2024
Yes the UK is taxing itself to self extinction. All parties, minus Reform, are equally guilty. Politicians have shopping lists supported by a maxed out plastic card. If it was all spent on the infrastructure we would have one, but we don’t. This of course assumes we have a competently run public sector, but we don’t. Add vanity projects such as HS2, Nett Zero and Energy and you begin to realise why we are where we are. Top it off with all the unnecessary personal and industrial regulation and you ensure decline. If the overloaded heart or private sector stops beating, the body is dead. Currently it is in intensive care.
The only opposition to this are navel gazing and are in many cases responsible for the mess we find ourselves in. Government can only think that doctrinaire politics, amounting to more of, holds the answer. In fact they are just digging a deeper hole. I anticipate they will self destruct before term ends.
The only hope is that Reform produce a viable escape plan and that the electorate wake up to where they are being led.
August 22, 2024
The mindset of the new Labour government and it’s advisors is marked by by hostility to wealth and wealth creation if you are a UK tax resident. That will be all too evident in Reeve’s forthcoming budget. But because Labour needs capital to finance it’s grandiose schemes it has no hesitation in inviting red in tooth and claw US private equity firms to invest in them. Watch out for the October conference for this purpose. We will therefore get two tier financing alongside two tier policing.
August 22, 2024
The fuss and theatre that has sprung up around compliance is ridiculous. Not only do companies need to be compliant but their supplier now need to spend hours filling in compliance questionnaires in order to do business with these entitles even if the rules don’t apply to them.
The amount of my time spent filling in pointless, repetitive questionnaires as we pick up new business is onerous and unnecessary. Jobs for the boys (Indian boys as they are outsources). If I ran my own business I don’t think I would look to expand.
August 22, 2024
I would recommend that those with talent, young and minus responsibilities, find more fertile ground. Do not anticipate things getting better. If they were to, you can always return at a future date. You might find that you can fund the escape of your parents too.
For anyone building a business, I would suggest you investigate incorporation offshore. It seems to be the answer for some insurance companies, the gambling industry and Amazon, so it is worth a look. Be assured, the situation will worsen over this government, and any subsequent recovery will take even longer. You only have 30/40 years in which to be successful, so do not allow government and their civil serpents to ride on your back.
August 22, 2024
Where?
August 22, 2024
LA :
With the UN plan is to trash the economies, meritocracy and democracy of the West in the pusuit of global equity then the only sensible solution is to live where the climate is hospitable all the year round with no cold winters and to maximise leisure rather than wealth.
August 22, 2024
All those burdens attacks our freedom.
MPs tend to feel they are doing nothing useful unless they are creating new laws to restrict others.
We now need a law to penalise the idiots in parliament and civil service who conspired and assisted the removal of Britonsā freedom. They deserve jail.
August 22, 2024
The country would benefit greatly if two groups of Civil Servants / Advisers were culled.
1. The Treasury
2. The Behavioural Psychologists
They are both on a mission to kill the goose but seem to think they will continue to get a plentiful supply of eggs.
Unfortunately, since Cameron introduced the so-called Nudge Unit, the Not-a-Conservative-Party has empowered the Behaviour Psychologists who are now completely out of control. Implementing psychological coercive control processes during the Covid Tyranny wrecked the mental health of millions and as a result the country now has a very large percentage of people who have, or claim to have, mental health issues which prevent them from working.
Never forget that it was a so-called Conservative Government which increased taxes to the highest peacetime level to pay for their tyrannical Covid policy. And that’s before we get onto the Net Zero lunacy which will cost even more.
Labour is just making a bad situation even worse …. as they always do.
Personally, I’ve changed my lifestyle and am on a mission to (legally) reduce the taxes I pay to the absolute minimum, including giving up my “little job” in a few months. I’m doing my bit to starve the beast.
Adam Smith Org: The Tax Poem
https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/miscellaneous/the-tax-poem
August 22, 2024
Surely it is everyoneās moral duty to avoid as much tax as possible (legally) as they waste so much of it. Bartering and exchanges perhaps the best way. Moving overseas, EIS schemes, stop working so long, claim benefitsā¦ seems to be the only way to stop them wasting it. Voting does nothing.
August 23, 2024
Yes, it is. But they don’t.
August 22, 2024
“It does not need this blanket of targeted taxes to make these basic points.”
Of course it doesn’t, but it can, so it does!
They just can’t help themselves… people have been describing the state as the “nanny state” for years! So of course that will include businesses!
Everywhere we go there are instructions on what to do or what not to do!
August 22, 2024
A major burden on business is the ramping up of employment law. It appears predicated on the philosophy that all employees are good and all employers are bad and need extensive regulations to prevent them doing wrong.
This is shown in particular in the Equality Act, where the employer is held vicariously liable for the actions of his employees. The wrongdoing of the employee is transferred to him as if he did it himself.
How can an employer be effective in rooting out bad behaviour if he is then accountable for the wrongdoing he finds? It’s rather like the police officer being made responsible for reparations for the shoplifter he apprehends, or making the judge responsible to settle the judgement he makes in civil liabilities. If that seems ridiculous, that sums up the Equality Act.
Employment works well where there is a good relationship between employer and employee, but from what I hear the Labour government wishes the law to be even more adversarial than it already is.
I beg anyone whose sole trader business has become successful, not to expand it by employing people. Keep it small, you will be much happier.
August 22, 2024
āIt appears predicated on the philosophy that all employees are good and all employers are bad and need extensive regulations to prevent them doing wrong.ā
Indeed just the same bogus lunacy with Tenants & Landlords.
August 22, 2024
Very sensible, and why so many dislike big government.
It’s not just the incessant and unnecessary regulations against business of course – HMG has increased all manner of bad laws that control how we think and how we act.
The increasing number of oppressive regulations against those that dare to protest against establishment tyranny just shows where we are headed.
This is no longer a democracy!
August 22, 2024
I’ve witnessed the erosion of democracy throughout my life time, bit by bit by bit
August 22, 2024
I don’t remember when it was!
August 22, 2024
Itās a cynical political calculation by both sides. Businesses per se donāt have a vote with labour inferring profit is bad, exploitation etc and the Tories not brave enough to push back.
All the legislation is for our own good protection etc. virtue signalling lobby captured un inquisitive one eyed politicians who took on the role because they wanted to tell other people what to do.
Look at the British potato industry, world class. Fields need to be rotated, I believe for five years, with other crops being grown. Smaller farmers are finding it easier and presumably profitable, no risk of crop failure. So switch to being paid to re wild. So no production, no employment, less/no tax? Just nice wild life.
One day our frankly stupid politicians will run out of money.
August 22, 2024
but we will first!
August 22, 2024
Indeed, the route to eventual self destruction, as we will all find out in due course if it continues.
Meanwhile those growing numbers of State/Local Government employees who seek to impose all of these regulations, taxes and laws on business and the public seem to thrive with automatic salary increases, generous sick pay, and pensions.
August 25, 2024
I agree Alan, if the taxes become too onerous come October then why bother.
If employing people becomes more of a nightmare than it already is, donāt renew when people leave, shrink, or look to get out. No one wants to hire a duff employee they need to let go of, itās costly to recruit, induct, train and if theyāre a waste of space, a drag on mood, a total duff, the whole thing is a horrid experience.
If Labour do as I predict they will in October, then within two years weāll have more business closures, lost jobs, steep housing dips in values and by 2025/6 lots of people wishing they werenāt in business and trapped in homes they canāt afford the taxes on.
August 22, 2024
I’m glad you are still around and airing these matters. Why do such common sense measures seem unachievable? What needs to change to make things happen?
August 22, 2024
Governments of all persuasions love to find something else to tax. Having done so, the same governments hate to remove any tax.
August 22, 2024
OA – Too true, the next government of any part of the Left/Right spectrum will not remove ANY of the additional taxes that Labour apply…
August 22, 2024
The other pernicious thing, which you do not mention, is the habit of fining businesses for failing to achieve government imposed targets when it is beyond the control of business to do so, e.g. energy providers and smart meters and car manufacturers and EVs. The public are not compelled and say no; so the provider must pay a fine. This from a so-called Conservative government!
August 22, 2024
I certainly agree with you Sir John – now please point me to the political party that I can vote for to change this misery? (one with a good track record of doing so of course)
August 22, 2024
I agree with your sentiment, the whole parliamentary system, the civil service structure & tax book concept is broken ….we need to start again, I’m also looking for a party of change. I was hoping that the tories would make a step change after the last election, however its the same-same papering over the real issues
August 22, 2024
āBusiness has to pay environmental leviesā¦ā¦leading to the rapid run down of energy intensive businessā
We are ruled by a fifth column Marxist majority in Parliament together with a co-ordinating nomenklatura in the Civil Service, law enforcement and institutions such as the āOfsā and industry regulators all working to sabotage our economy and military capability.
The CAGW lie and its Net Zero āsolutionā is the perfect vehicle to achieve their goals of de-industrialisation and impoverishment using expensive and intermittent energy to cause the rationing of energy, food and transport. The NG ESOās latest FES (Future Energy Senario) calls for ācustomer engagementā and ābehaviour changeā to achieve their āHolistic Transitionā to Net Zero by 2050. [The word āHolisticā is a term often used by Marxists to describe their eventual nirvana]. Gone is the Net Zero Strategy lie (P19) that we will have āabundant, cheap energy from British renewablesā.
We need both a change of Parliament and a referendum to stop this national suicide.
August 22, 2024
Taking a system as a whole and looking at the bigger picture is what holistic means. The use of the word in the last eighty-ninety years is mainly in medicine for a patient treatment that does not consider only a given symptom. It is opposed to reductionist.
To consider holistic as marxist vocabulary is rather weird, but I guess everything you donāt agree with is Marxist.
August 23, 2024
What is weird hefner, is that richard wrote a lengthy post on an interesting topic and the best response you can manage is to make a snide personal attack by obsessing on one word of the post.
August 22, 2024
Sir John
What ever you want to call it tax, levies, windfalls it is just tax, the removal of money from the economy so a few ideological numpties can impose the personal, very personal diktats on society, is destruction.
It is innovation and enterprise that will move the country forward, not rules, tax punishment and red tape. Remove the ability, that means cash as much as anything from the economy, you have no economy, no future. In the parlance of the day just more contrived ‘black holes’
We should be allowed to vote for those that want to work with us, not loyalty drones that up the fight, the destruction and punishment of us minions. The great divide in action care of a corrupt and/or a Parliament in neglect of purpose
August 22, 2024
It is a pity the last Government did nothing about the valid points you raise Sir John. The present runners and riders in the Conservative leadership contest underwhelm because they did not think any of their proposed ‘new thoughts’ were worth resigning about, if indeed they had raised them in Cabinet at all.
I reckon the next GE-winning leader is still to be in parliament.
August 22, 2024
I see the closure and vandalisation of the road system is bout to be ramped up. They want 30% of journeys to be made on foot or bicycle. The new Transport Secretary has not let the side down.
August 22, 2024
Will that apply to the MPs & Lords?
– also CS ?
Best idea for ages.
August 22, 2024
The current tax book needs to be thrown into the bin, and start afresh with only 2 taxes, (1) PAYE and (2) % rate of Company turnover ….no other taxation whatsoever, no vat, no business rate, no NI, no council tax, no levies and the size of government should be reduced to reflect tax income without borrowing
If the government wants more revenue they increase (1) or (2) above …thats transparency
August 22, 2024
What has always bewildered me is that the 1970s proved how bad governments could damage OUR country BUT our saviour turned out to be a grocers daughter, who turned Downing Street conventional thinking on its head, to transform our country from the “sick man of Europe” into a power house of wonder, right across the world.
Our Iron lady, Mrs Thatcher, proved that Britain could indeed become great again. Having proven throughout the 1980s she had the correct policies that worked for us, why were they abandoned and never again revisited?
Have we citizens in fact, elected ourselves a Government and a HoC of masochists for each Parliamentary term over the past 30+years?
I do wonder why have none of the Conservative governments ever revisited the Thatcher policies? Especially when they know they worked!
I still believe the answer is that the pursuant Tory PMs were more liberal/social democrats rather than true blue Tories and the Sunak Cabinet was no exception. LOL – neither is the new Starmer one likely to ever be! Help!
August 22, 2024
A better question is why the Government needs stealth taxes?
The basic answer is they would not be re-elected if they enumerated what those taxes achieved. They (1) spend too much (2) on stuff the voters donāt want and (3) get poor value for money.
August 22, 2024
True – Stealth taxes are a hoodwink trick ….so the people don’t revolt
August 22, 2024
You are right again, Sr John, as you have been for the last few years. Why did PMs and Chancellors ignore you?
Our PMs and Ministers seem to believe that taking action is always the right move, a belief that could lead to even more challenges under a Labour government. Could it be that the multitude of laws, rules and regulations are the reason we are so far behind America in terms of economic growth?
It seems neither the past Conservative Government nor the present Labour one has a clue as to how to stimulate
growth. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a Government committed to no more rules and regulations and prepared to take the tough decisions to live within our means? Even better to set up a team to remove rules and regulations!
However, such a vision is at odds with the plan to rejoin the EU, a move that prevents us from repealing their laws, rules, and regulations. It’s a disheartening reality that we’ve been led by a subpar group of PMs, Chancellors, and most MPs in recent years.
August 22, 2024
“emissions trading charges and the climate change levy on its energy” = criminal conspiracy to make lots of dosh out of trading what has no more intrinsic value than Monopoly money and to literally starve us in order to produce highly subsidised “free” energy. Voting for cretins who don’t understand this and many of the other things being done to our country by the congenitally evil will continue whilst people continue to vote for the liblabcon most of whose candidates are selected by the same malefactors.
August 22, 2024
You’re probably not aware SJ, but my secure browser has just blocked 934 tracking attempts on me. Why are they there?
August 22, 2024
Just have to say what a great British company Specsavers are (for lots of reasons).
Their founders should be invited to next Tory Conference to advise / inspire government how Tory Government can help entrepreneurs more – not just in tax breaks but across the board so that we have more excellent international British brands like Specsavers – in services such as Specsavers but also in Finance and High Tech.
August 22, 2024
And now economists and former senior Treasury officials have pointed out that higher CGT will actually cost the Treasury Ā£2bn by 2027, as investors will simply change their MO and hold their shares, avoiding all tax until the next government comes along and abolishes the higher rates.
Most have already plans in place to offset gains with losses and have been whooshing taxable holdings into non-taxable or abroad, as it was obvious what was coming. Nobody sits down in front of an oncoming train.
August 23, 2024
The problem is how do you talk and convince people who now run this country who have no one in their ranks who has invested in running their own business? They only have had jobs which have been subsidised by tax payers or work in the national health which is not the same as working for yourself and employing others to make productivity for the country. Not criticising people who work in state occupations just saying that they do not have the relevant experience to make productivity for the country which it desperately needs at present. No way forward for another 5 years I would say.
August 23, 2024
I have recently obtained a copy of Hansard for Thatcher’s first government, I was reading an account of PMQs on 10th July 1979. The clarity and incisiveness shone out of the pages.
PM response to James Hamilton – “one of the purposes of cuts in public expenditure – which has to be finance by taxation levied on the Hon Gentleman’s electorate as much as anyone else – is to get money back into the private sector, so we can get more jobs in the private sector. When that is done we tend to have more small businesses growing, that is the true source of new employment”.
And a response to Alan Beith (LD): “The Hon gentleman knows we have given priority to defence expenditure. As he is against public expenditure cuts he must be in favour of more taxation on the British people”.
On a question on TUs – “I do not know whether one will be able to persuade them but unlesss increased pay is matched by increased output the result will either be inflation or unemployment”.
The current PM could reflect on these words.