▲ | gghhzzgghhzz 14 days ago | |||||||
> Govt debt to gdp is up against the 100% barrier. Looking at central bank balance sheet, it does look like you just avoided bankruptcy. A country cannot go bankrupt. After the war the debt to gdp ratio was 250%, and from that position the government nationalised 20% of industry, built houses, create the NHS and welfare state and developed a nuclear programme. > corporate tax rate of 25% on profit yes, but if you are big enough you declare as little profit as possible. > personal income tax of 45% that's the highest band there is, payable only on income over £125,140 > sales tax of 20% Yikes. well it's a tax on added value on every step thorough the retail chain, collectable by the end retailer. It's zero rate on food and child clothes and some other things. Taxes are indeed on the wrong places in many cases: e.g. dividend tax on unearned income should be equalised with income tax, income tax thresholds should be increased in line with inflation / wages and not frozen as they currently are. but I don't think overall tax burden is the issue here. | ||||||||
▲ | incomingpain 14 days ago | parent [-] | |||||||
>A country cannot go bankrupt. After the war the debt to gdp ratio was 250%, and from that position the government nationalised 20% of industry, built houses, create the NHS and welfare state and developed a nuclear programme. Correct that there isn't a bankruptcy legislation, but there's a factor of cant pay the creditors and you just stop. Which mostly implies that retirees go back to work. If you'd like to invent a new word for it, fine but bankrupt is what many western countries are right now. >but I don't think overall tax burden is the issue here. This is without talking about property, tv, etc taxes. The total tax burden is probably over 100% and you're feeding people into specific tax free things like food. Definitely total tax burden problem. The problem comes up against thermodynamics. The longer you run taxes at these high levels, the worse things get. That includes roads and everything. Even though in theory taxation should at least maintain those things. So your country becomes poorer and poorer. Not sustainable. | ||||||||
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