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Sneak attack
Nov 18, 2008, 08:19 AM
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Daniel
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Nov 18, 2008, 08:19 AM
There are only about five tax stories currently being run over and over again in the morning press.
One of them appears today on the front page The Times: 'Tax rises are set to follow next week’s tax cuts, ministers admitted yesterday as Gordon Brown raised the spectre of deflation in Britain for the first time'.
It's a yarn much the same as the one that ran across at least five nationals last week, when employment minister Tony McNulty said 'that taxes may have to rise in the long term to finance the short-term tax cuts that are to be announced shortly by the Government'. (The Independent)
We won't be able to say, then, that we weren't warned - nor should we protest too much as long as the rises are transparent and as fair as possible.
What we need to be on guard for, however, is the introduction of the sort of sneaky, undiscriminating taxes that so many feared following the recession of the early 1990s.
I clearly remember signing a petition against the imposition of VAT on books and periodicals, which the Conservative party refused to rule out. Children's clothes and general foodstuffs were also widely believed to be targeted for a 17.5% retail tax, you'll no doubt recall.
There shouldn't be so much to fear now.
The current Labour government is often accused - and sometimes realistically - of levying 'stealth taxes', but it wouldn't stoop to such diabolical underhandedness.
Would it?
To return to Taxation.co.uk, click here.
One of them appears today on the front page The Times: 'Tax rises are set to follow next week’s tax cuts, ministers admitted yesterday as Gordon Brown raised the spectre of deflation in Britain for the first time'.
It's a yarn much the same as the one that ran across at least five nationals last week, when employment minister Tony McNulty said 'that taxes may have to rise in the long term to finance the short-term tax cuts that are to be announced shortly by the Government'. (The Independent)
We won't be able to say, then, that we weren't warned - nor should we protest too much as long as the rises are transparent and as fair as possible.
What we need to be on guard for, however, is the introduction of the sort of sneaky, undiscriminating taxes that so many feared following the recession of the early 1990s.
I clearly remember signing a petition against the imposition of VAT on books and periodicals, which the Conservative party refused to rule out. Children's clothes and general foodstuffs were also widely believed to be targeted for a 17.5% retail tax, you'll no doubt recall.
There shouldn't be so much to fear now.
The current Labour government is often accused - and sometimes realistically - of levying 'stealth taxes', but it wouldn't stoop to such diabolical underhandedness.
Would it?
To return to Taxation.co.uk, click here.
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