http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22296769

Does the PAC have enough juice to get real change? They certainly talk a good game.

Surely tax law has to be published so people can follow it. As such a good accountant could find the loop holes regardless of whether they work for the government or private enterprise.

Yes but while inside government they do not close all the loopholes. So when back in practice, they can exploit those loopholes.


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As I understand it, it's more about the big accountancy firms having the inside edge on changes to the tax system (so they get to make use of the sooner than everyone else).
It's also got to be a bit of a conflict of interest if someone working for an accountancy firm is advising the people making the rules.



Tax law has to be published yes but as for people being able to follow it, that's a slightly different matter.
If tax was dead easy there would be less demand for accountants and tax specialists, some people might actually have to pay what they should and so on.

Tax law needs to be simplified and ending loopholes.

dream on

I advocate a flat rate of income tax for all and a living wage, until then I will continue to enjoy any loopholes and tax breaks that come my way.

Flat tax is even more regressive than what we have now. A living wage is sensible but will never be brought in by this government even if it slashed the level of in work benefits.

The living wage would have to take into account the flat tax. Ie, be a living wage after the flat tax. Apart from the odd few, most people not in PAYE are getting their tax bill to around 20%. Make the flat tax 25% and the high earners wouldn't bother.

I appreciate that, but simply raising capital gains taxes will end a lot of the abuses. Governments should be trying to eliminate specific tax breaks or cap their benefits to say £25 000. There can be no justification of personal tax breaks exceeding an average persons wage, no matter how much you earn.

The problem is that the tax burden will further shift on to the average income earner.

But that leads to a world of massive corporations and jobbing builders. There has to be an incentive to working for yourself or what's the point? We might as all work for the public sector.

Actually most job creation and wealth creation take place in small firms, so why doesn't government assist small businesses?


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Because they don't tend to make big party donations?

They do though, with these tax breaks that everyone's slagging off.