Lies, Damned Lies & Taxation Simplification
Seminar
With Thanks To Our Event Sponsors:
People often say death and taxes are the same, but this is wrong. Death is a taxable event, but taxes never die, they just get more complex. In 2006, the Tax Reform Commission, after intensive research, affirmed what we all know. The tax burden in the UK is high in both historic and international terms; the UK system is too complex, too unfair, too unstable; the tax system is exacerbated by problems with legislative process; high taxes and complexity damage growth - the tax system is undermining UK competitiveness and precipitating relative economic decline.
And now it’s worse. Taxation is now so complex that not even specialists understand it fully. In the UK, Tolley’s Tax Guide, a manual for lawyers and accountants, was in 2011 over 14,500 pages, the longest in the world and 185% longer than in 2000. Tax is in desperate need of simplification. Allister Heath says “we need revolutionary change”.
Edmund Burke claimed “there is no such thing as a good tax” and, possibly, all taxes will be bad taxes, but public goods and welfare must be financed. Most economists agree that the best taxes have as little impact as possible on people’s choices to undertake a productive economic activity. Adam Smith’s stated four maxims for good taxation[Smith, 1042-1046]:
- Equality – all subjects should contribute, and in proportion to their respective abilities;
- Certainty – tax calculations, timing and demands are not arbitrary;
- Convenience of Payment – in line with cashflow and payment systems;
- Economy in Collection – few officers, few inspections, few evaders and few economic distortions.
The modern view is not much different, but the question is clearly how to get there. This event is meant to suggest proposals that will stimulate discussion amongst anyone interested in our tax regime - financial advisors, bankers, company owners, members of the public, and taxpayers.
Speakers
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Professor Michael Mainelli
Z/Yen Group Limited
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Derek Bates
Materials Technology Ltd
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Professor Ian Angell
Spectre Consulting
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Jonathan Isaby, Chief Executive
The Taxpayers’ Alliance
