What taxes do we have that other countries don't?

Belmit said:
My housemate is from Guernsey and I was surprised to find out that they don't pay council tax over there.

Edit: I mean they don't have it at all, not that people just don't pay it. :p
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Don't have it in N. Ireland either. Homeowners pay rates instead.

Also to the OP. There is no student tax code! Why does everyone think this!
 
I'm pretty sure were no-were near as bad as scandenavian countries.

Also everyone generally works out the same correct? In terms of services the country provides.
Phoenixdancer said:
Not exactly....
TV licence pays the BBC who in turn pay others...

You would find that we the UK have much better TV programs then other countrys (apart from USA)
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I find this quite annoying considering i never watch anything on the BBC nor Radio..And why do i have to pay 6 months in advance :(
 
Gilly said:
Insane fuel duty with **** roads :mad:
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Ahahahahaha....;)

Yeah we pay a lot more fuel duty than a few countries (which includes just about the US in the western world, unless you want to live in North Africa?) but the roads here are just as good if not better than most other countries. Get off the motorways (you have to pay for them anyway...) in europe and France and Spain (for example) have some dreadful roads, same with the US, get off the interstates and a lot of the smaller roads will knock your teeth out, it's why they have such soft suspension (at least that's my theory:p).

US specific- Yeah the west of the country (read desert area) has lots of nice roads, but then little water and fairly constabt temperatures makes roads very easy to look after...

Ceryndrion said:
For the most part, TV Licensing is a tax that we have, and very few others do (a few but not many)..
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Had a conversation with an Ozzi recently. She said she was suprised when she realised she would have to pay for it as they don't have it over there, they get free public tv... funded by their taxes... At least we're transparent. :p
 
Amp34 said:
But it is "the Gambia"... ;)

So it may just well be "the Ukraine" as well...;)
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No! Some professors from Ukraine didn't learn English properly and wrote 'The Ukraine' in papers they wrote. The Japan, the Russia, the Latvia, the Ireland, the Andorra, just no! :D

I've never heard anyone who uses the cyrillic alphabet says 'the' before 'Ukraine'. :p
 
Try Arizona for a holiday.

5 different types of Income tax. A sales tax (usually 6.3%) applied in shops.

And if you stay at a hotel (like I did) - add another 7.27% onto your bill. Some cities even tax you for food ?????


It's great when you see your hotel only costs $60 a night. Once you add the *hidden extras in the small print* - it's more expensive than most of the average hotels in the UK.
 
a1ex2001 said:
Thats my understanding too, it doesn't really matter what reason it is taken for it is the total that counts and we always come out somewhere near the middle.

The Scandanavian countries are generally near the top but then they have incredible standards of public service and education systems that make ours look plain retarded.

The US is always much lower than us but then they have a much much smaller set of public services ie no healthcare!

Oh an off topic who ever it was that said the US have better TV than us have you ever actually been and watched it? The don't have endless wall to wall Lost or Band of Brothers standard programs they have more than enough crap clogging the airwaves!
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The problem is, things get cheaper per person as population goes up.

IE it costs more to setup a healthcare system that provides complete service for 500k people than for 50million, because you buy supplies in higher bulk, you build bigger more economical hospitals, doctors should be less wasted, IE you might need only one specialist for 2-3 surgerys which amongst 500k people is 5 surgerys a year but amongst 50mil 1 doctor is busy all year long.

Thats the problem with the UK, it SHOULD be cheaper, a LOT cheaper than scandanavian countries with small populations, its not significantly.

We are also stealth taxed up the backside, generally these comparisons are about the basic taxes and don't tend to include things like massive money generating speed camera/parking fines systems which we've set up.

America isn't doing bad and I get REALLY fed up with people saying the USA has no healthcare, it spends BILLIONS and billions a year on free health care, but as with our system, they can't afford to(with their current miltary spending) to cover every person in the system, they spend billions upon billions on free healthcare though and its so massively inaccurate to suggest they don't.

Private healthcare is essentially a "stealth tax" in the states though, and frankly is very good, but as with anything you don't "have" to pay for, too many people take the risk, assume they'll be fine and don't get great medical insurance, either none or get the cheapest crappest screws you out of every treatment insurance and screw themselves in the process.

Meh, we're taxed very highly here for ever worsening services, but out biggest scam/rip off is benefits where we are being bled dry, and the amount of wastes money we pay in wages to public sector workers we don't need is criminal(thanks Labour).

The other simple problem with comparing taxes, is it doesn't compare debt, or tax we NEED to be paying for the country to be, coming at least close to breaking even.

IE the tax level the UK(and Ireland, Spain, Italy, forget the other big one, Greece is it?) SHOULD be paying to cover the massive spending we've all racked up and to slow down debt growth is stupidly higher than what we are actually spending.

IE Norway has 25% vat or something, and 35% tax on average where we average 25%(making up the numbers), however their debt is going up slightly, in safeish levels with no real problems and great services.

THe UK however has ever increasing debt, unsafe levels of debt, worsening services and needs to be paying 40% tax on average to get back to the same safe levels of deficit places like Norway are running.

This is the big problem, ACTUAL taxation isn't really the problem, its what we SHOULD be paying to cover what our government is ACTUALLY spending, is much higher than most other countries in the EU, at some point cuts to spending just won't fix our deficit problems, Labour has lost too many real jobs and saddled us with millions of public servants we don't need who serve no purpose, but won't have other jobs to go into if they all get fired(which with unions and current setup of public services, would be near impossible anyway). When we cut what can be cut without laying off a couple million people, tax will need to go up to cover the shortfall, at which point Labour will get re-elected, crank up spending, drop taxes and plunge us into debt we can never break free of.
 
I don't think tax is as big a problem as some make it out to be; after all, doesn't society earn things and spend things with tax first taken in consideration? We live with it, instead of having to find ways around it. We have the same lifestyles and luxuries as many other nations in Europe despite wildly varying tax rates because they are generally proportionate to living standards. Generally...

We could be paying even less and be better off as a country by being smart with taxpayers' money though. We haven't been smart about it for a very long time. :(

This is where tax goes;
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franco_22 said:
I thought Council tax only existed in England?
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Scotland will never vote Conservative because they were guinea pigs for the first rollout of council tax, particularly in Glasgow.
 
But then you get people complaining about the amount of welfare not being high enough. Where do you cut it from?

I'm somewhat stunned at the outcry about people earning over 44k losing child benefit. Benefits are supposed to help those who need it not those who can make a few minor sacrifices.

If you cant live with children while on 44k then you have over reached. That shouldn't be the tax payers problem.
 
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