tcm
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Ten+ years in power and the uk labour govt has discovered that some b*stards have ONLY been paying the amount of tax that is required by law! The bl**dy selfish gits! They oughta be ashamed of themselves.
Apparently, you know, they pay less tax than an office cleaner! Well, not actually *less* insofar as 10% of say £100mill is er £10mill but anyway, it's less as a percentage, or at least some bits of it are, apart from the fact that cleaners often come under the tax threshold so pay mostly 0% .... and come to think of it um, any cleaner i've ever had wanted cash in hand for the cleaning and hence zero tax again but anyway, that's by the by.
Now, some might say that there's a tax system and the same tax regime from same govt with same chancellor applies to everyone so perhaps blame govt? But as above, that's just quisling stuff. Actually lottery winners pay no tax at all so i spose they'll be next on the hitlist. Then cleaners..
As side issue, the private equity bunch has been quite rubbish in defending itself - even fairly high powered peeps who should have read the mood were just flimsy, shifty, unrehearsed. Like praps theycould have ripped into cleaners, having decent info as to hom much tax they have paid individually or as an industry, or ripping into MP's come to that with their incredible expenses. Buffini should have gone through the lot and explained they'd have been sacked in a real company. Or asked why the heck the tax take is double what it used to be, plus sqillions of speeding fines all for no discernable improvement. Whereas his AA roadside thingy things costs less than twenty years ago.
Buy a company with borrowed money and the company pays less corporation tax - but the banks pay oodles *more* cos the private equity companies pay banks interest on their loans. So the banks pay tax on *their* extra profits instead. Unless it's all driven offshore then it might be foreign banks and er, damn. Also if a foreign investor bought companies then nobody would pay uk govt any capital gains tax either, not even 10% so again, damn.
And the fact that such low quality unemployable people as in that treasury committee all on- jeez- ninety thousand quid+! - beggars belief.... but nobody said a dicky bird. Someone needed to rip in! A wasted opportunity imho.
Now, later on in the bbc reporting there was one govt chappie who said that pah - if some people want to move to Switzerland, well, - lettem! Well, heh, funny he should mention it cos that's what i've done.
Here in Geneva, the drivers stop to let pedestrians cross the road, and now I do the same too. If you're in a lift (any lift, even in multistory car parks) the next person into the lift says good morning, every time. How nice. I have experimentally left increasing amounts of stuff unguarded in restaurants or in unlocked car, all untouched and unthreatened. I've never walked across so much urban grassy parkland with no risk of dog pooh. You get nice big posh tinging glasses in resturants, even if you order the cheap wine, and the waiters speak quite good english too, or often better than in the uk anyway. We've been into some food shops with both of us feeling a bit like a sixties soviet bloc visitor to the West- some of them make Waitrose or even Harrods food hall look like a kwiksave.
Not one of these things is a big deal, but taken all together, one might start thinking that if uk govt is gonna jack up the tax, drop bombs across the planet and run crummy public services with index-linked pensions for millions of do-nothing civil servants ...then that's not the same envy-of-the-world-deal that UK once claimed to be. *Especially* if -as today- some of the individuals who have been writing the very biggest tax cheques to uk govt are publicly ridiculed on national TV! Amazing, really.
Anyway, Roger Federer is up at Wimbledon and it's free Alinghi/UBS caps (slightly boaty, see?) to everyone in Switzerland this week. It's even worth watching the tv sport over here...
Apparently, you know, they pay less tax than an office cleaner! Well, not actually *less* insofar as 10% of say £100mill is er £10mill but anyway, it's less as a percentage, or at least some bits of it are, apart from the fact that cleaners often come under the tax threshold so pay mostly 0% .... and come to think of it um, any cleaner i've ever had wanted cash in hand for the cleaning and hence zero tax again but anyway, that's by the by.
Now, some might say that there's a tax system and the same tax regime from same govt with same chancellor applies to everyone so perhaps blame govt? But as above, that's just quisling stuff. Actually lottery winners pay no tax at all so i spose they'll be next on the hitlist. Then cleaners..
As side issue, the private equity bunch has been quite rubbish in defending itself - even fairly high powered peeps who should have read the mood were just flimsy, shifty, unrehearsed. Like praps theycould have ripped into cleaners, having decent info as to hom much tax they have paid individually or as an industry, or ripping into MP's come to that with their incredible expenses. Buffini should have gone through the lot and explained they'd have been sacked in a real company. Or asked why the heck the tax take is double what it used to be, plus sqillions of speeding fines all for no discernable improvement. Whereas his AA roadside thingy things costs less than twenty years ago.
Buy a company with borrowed money and the company pays less corporation tax - but the banks pay oodles *more* cos the private equity companies pay banks interest on their loans. So the banks pay tax on *their* extra profits instead. Unless it's all driven offshore then it might be foreign banks and er, damn. Also if a foreign investor bought companies then nobody would pay uk govt any capital gains tax either, not even 10% so again, damn.
And the fact that such low quality unemployable people as in that treasury committee all on- jeez- ninety thousand quid+! - beggars belief.... but nobody said a dicky bird. Someone needed to rip in! A wasted opportunity imho.
Now, later on in the bbc reporting there was one govt chappie who said that pah - if some people want to move to Switzerland, well, - lettem! Well, heh, funny he should mention it cos that's what i've done.
Here in Geneva, the drivers stop to let pedestrians cross the road, and now I do the same too. If you're in a lift (any lift, even in multistory car parks) the next person into the lift says good morning, every time. How nice. I have experimentally left increasing amounts of stuff unguarded in restaurants or in unlocked car, all untouched and unthreatened. I've never walked across so much urban grassy parkland with no risk of dog pooh. You get nice big posh tinging glasses in resturants, even if you order the cheap wine, and the waiters speak quite good english too, or often better than in the uk anyway. We've been into some food shops with both of us feeling a bit like a sixties soviet bloc visitor to the West- some of them make Waitrose or even Harrods food hall look like a kwiksave.
Not one of these things is a big deal, but taken all together, one might start thinking that if uk govt is gonna jack up the tax, drop bombs across the planet and run crummy public services with index-linked pensions for millions of do-nothing civil servants ...then that's not the same envy-of-the-world-deal that UK once claimed to be. *Especially* if -as today- some of the individuals who have been writing the very biggest tax cheques to uk govt are publicly ridiculed on national TV! Amazing, really.
Anyway, Roger Federer is up at Wimbledon and it's free Alinghi/UBS caps (slightly boaty, see?) to everyone in Switzerland this week. It's even worth watching the tv sport over here...
. Only problem is that there is usually not much wind on the lake (boaty...), but I would go back every day.
