How Would You Generate Revenue For the UK And Make Life Easier For UK SMEs?

[Newchodge]

We do need to reform the NHS. The internal market for the NHS needs to be externalised.

Of course, then private companies can take money out of the NHS to enhance their profits. That'll help. The whole idea of an NHS market needs to be abandoned.

 

[NickGrogan]

If they pay you in dollars you have to obtain sterling, if they pay you in sterling, they have to obtain sterling. The amount of sterling remains the same.

That wasn't the question, and your statement is wrong.

What has happened to the total amount of money circulating in the UK?

 

[Duke Fame]

If they pay you in dollars you have to obtain sterling, if they pay you in sterling, they have to obtain sterling. The amount of sterling remains the same.

No, you completely misunderstand the basics of economics here. The funds are released into the economy, the employer pays staff, the staff spend the money and save a bit. The bank takes the savings and invests it and so on.

 

[NickGrogan]

Also I'd licence most recreational drugs, this removes the need for so many prison places adn police PLUS it adds a huge revenue income.

Ban all recreational drugs and enforce the law, minimum life in prison, the death penalty for worst dealers. Build more prisons as needed.

More stop and search and immediate jail for anyone carrying a weapon near/at a school. No defence, no excuses.

Put prisoners to work, all of them.
Provide education to prisoners, all of them.
No parole for those who don't take part, longer terms for those who are disruptive.
Incentive employers to hire ex-cons by paying % of the salary for XX months.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Some great suggestions so far, but, if you are going to highlight problems, suggest solutions.

 

[fisicx]

What has happened to the total amount of money circulating in the UK?

A lot of it is squirreled away. A big chunk by those seeking to reduce the amount of tax they pay.

 

[Duke Fame]

Of course, then private companies can take money out of the NHS to enhance their profits. That'll help. The whole idea of an NHS market needs to be abandoned.

What it will do is help concentrate the health providers on getting great outcomes for their patient rather than concentrate on workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion nonsense. The NL or German model will do nicely

 

[fisicx]

Some great suggestions so far, but, if you are going to highlight problems, suggest solutions.

Redistribution of wealth. Stop all the loopholes that let big business get away with not paying their fair share of tax.

 

[Duke Fame]

Redistribution of wealth. Stop all the loopholes that let big business get away with not paying their fair share of tax.

What loopholes are they, asking for a friend.

 

[NickGrogan]

A lot of it is squirreled away. A big chunk by those seeking to reduce the amount of tax they pay.

This refers back to a previous question, not a tax issue but a money one.

 

[Duke Fame]

Ban all recreational drugs and enforce the law, minimum life in prison, the death penalty for worst dealers. Build more prisons as needed.

More stop and search and immediate jail for anyone carrying a weapon near/at a school. No defence, no excuses.

Put prisoners to work, all of them.
Provide education to prisoners, all of them.
No parole for those who don't take part, longer terms for those who are disruptive.
Incentive employers to hire ex-cons by paying % of the salary for XX months.

Agree re. prisoners working & educaton but why crack down on drugs? We could make revenues instead

 

[Duke Fame]

A lot of it is squirreled away. A big chunk by those seeking to reduce the amount of tax they pay.

Again, I'd like to know how to do this. It sounds like something out of the Guardian comments section

 

[Duke Fame]

If they pay you in dollars you have to obtain sterling, if they pay you in sterling, they have to obtain sterling. The amount of sterling remains the same.

In your example, if that's a closed system, the value of sterling increases and the wealth of all those holing sterling goes up.

 

[NickGrogan]

Agree re. prisoners working & educaton but why crack down on drugs? We could make revenues instead

costs, direct - medical, crime, etc and indirect - lost productivity, missed opportunity, etc will outway the benefit.

Unless we go full tilt and legalise everything and become the hedonist capital, but we haven't got the weather for that,

 

[Duke Fame]

costs, direct - medical, crime, etc and indirect - lost productivity, missed opportunity, etc will outway the benefit.

Unless we go full tilt and legalise everything and become the hedonist capital, but we haven't got the weather for that,

If we drop the net zero crap, we could have the weather for it!!!

I tend to think that those who want to take a few tablets, lines etc will do so why make it a problem. The same logic applies for prostitution. legalising makes the industry cleaner all round be that drugs or sex.

 

[Duke Fame]

Simplify, simplify, simplify! When a person cannot understand how much tax they have to pay on something - it is too complex! Then errors arise and clever people find loopholes. Rich people's tax lawyers are far brighter than our politicians.
Do away with all the little "exemptions" - no dividend exemption, no interest exemption, no GCT exemption. Tax smaller, tax consistently and it will be fairer. Have a single income tax rate. When some people pay zero tax on their earnings they have no interest in how stuff works. When some people pay more than half they lose interst in working hard.
Make personal tax allowances totally transferable. Give children a tax allowance instead of free childcare or family allowance (or whatever they call it these days). Then one working parent can have all the allowances and decide how best to spend for their family.
Sack half the civil service. They add nothing to the economy.
Speed up and simplify planning permission. At the moment the overhead is so bad that individuals cannot build their own homes without a huge learning curve and a vast waste of money. Take home-building out of the hands of the big corporations and watch the quality of homes improve........and the availablility. That will affect the cost of living and the cost of rent - both will fall.
Make a proper plan for energy sufficiency at a decent price. We cannot manufacture here because premises, power and labour are far too expensive. Understand that a home manufacturing economy is great to UK Plc. Money spent on british goods and services goes back into the economy several times; wages, tax, all go around and lower the true cost. But don't be short-termist. The current rush for great lines of pylons, because underground cabling is "too expensive" is totally short term. Spoiling the ship for a ha-porth of tar. Uglify the country to save two-and-six (in real terms) when a tiny bit of extra money and time would make it all much better for everyone. people would be happier to have underground cables near their homes because they would not affect their lives!
Most of all, teach kids about finance. Understand that sending everyone out to work and paying for help because you have no time only benefits spendthrift government. Taxing a mother's/father's wages, then taxing the person they pay for childcare and the person they pay for cleaning and the people they pay for meals - because they "has no time" - is false economy. That same pound is taxed several times and the benefit is actually dissolved. A government cannot tax your time - that is why they want you to go out to work.
One of the biggest cons is the net zero "plan". We do not have distribution networks in the right place, so need to build more...........how about distributing the generation to the places it is actually used? No new networks needed. But people who install solar or wind generation at home (or work) pay no taxes on that power............they would rather you have to go cap in hand to a big generator, who can be taxed, and then the consumer can be taxed on what they use as well. It would also mitigate against failures - a much safer system for all.
The sinister creep of control and taxation is gaining pace and this government will not be happy until everyone with a mind of their own is trodden down and forced to have only what they are "allowed".
Rant over. And breathe.

Agree with threat, Covid has seen a State creep and the worst aspect is the population seem happy to just go among with it

 

[NickGrogan]

If we drop the net zero crap, we could have the weather for it!!!

I tend to think that those who want to take a few tablets, lines etc will do so why make it a problem. The same logic applies for prostitution. legalising makes the industry cleaner all round be that drugs or sex.

One or the other is fine. Right now we have a "war on drugs" that involves doing very little about drugs. The worst of both worlds.

 

[UKSBD]

This will annoy people

I say, make things harder for SME's, encourage big business to get bigger, aim to have British Amazon like businesses

Why do we need 10 small businesses, with directors who think they should earn more because they are directors, all 10 businesses have managers, all 10 businesses have a couple of employees, all 10 businesses have premises, all 10 businesses have accountants, all 10 business have insurance policies, etc .

When one big business only needs one director, one manager, 1 premises, 1 accountant, 1 insurance policy, to do the same thing.

Why if I want a washing machine repaired am I paying a local small business or self employed guy £60 an hour, when a big company can employ 20 repair guys on £15 an hour and charge me £45 an hour to have the same job done?

 

[James]

As said before by others ensure big businesses pay their fair share of tax.
Reduce the size of the state / number of public jobs / bureaucracy / number of external consultants used in government.



On separate note
NHS is so abused by all politicians for votes and this constant rhetoric that it is failing does nothing for staff morale. 111 is a waste of funds most end up in at GPs or ED divert the funds to front line / GPs. The ageing population means there needs to be more social and community based hospitals to improve flow of patients. Politicians need to be honest with the public that if we want it to "world leading" it will take world leading funding not statements like (analog to digital) or banging on about AI. Rant over

 

[Gill Courage]

This will annoy people

I say, make things harder for SME's, encourage big business to get bigger, aim to have British Amazon like businesses

Why do we need 10 small businesses, with directors who think they should earn more because they are directors, all 10 businesses have managers, all 10 businesses have a couple of employees, all 10 businesses have premises, all 10 businesses have accountants, all 10 business have insurance policies, etc .

When one big business only needs one director, one manager, 1 premises, 1 accountant, 1 insurance policy, to do the same thing.

Why if I want a washing machine repaired am I paying a local small business or self employed guy £60 an hour, when a big company can employ 20 repair guys on £15 an hour and charge me £45 an hour to have the same job done?

One day all restaurants will be Taco Bell........

 

[fisicx]

Again, I'd like to know how to do this. It sounds like something out of the Guardian comments section

No idea. I’m not clever enough to devise a plan but there are plenty who do. Unfortunately I doubt there are any in government with the necessary skills.

But it’s not difficult to produce a sliding scale of tariffs.

For example: family of 4 in a two bed flat pay nothing. A couple in a 5 bed house pay a lot. If they have children living in the house they pay less. If the children are adults and no longer in full time education they pay more.

 

[fisicx]

NHS is so abused by all politicians for votes and this constant rhetoric that it is failing does nothing for staff morale. 111 is a waste of funds most end up in at GPs or ED divert the funds to front line / GPs. The ageing population means there needs to be more social and community based hospitals to improve flow of patients. Politicians need to be honest with the public that if we want it to "world leading" it will take world leading funding not statements like (analog to digital) or banging on about AI. Rant over

Starmer tells us the NHS is broken. Not round here it isn’t. Superb service each time I need it. And no longer have to queue for repeat prescriptions, all done online and delivered to my door a few days later. Brilliant.

 

[UKSBD]

Starmer tells us the NHS is broken. Not round here it isn’t. Superb service each time I need it. And no longer have to queue for repeat prescriptions, all done online and delivered to my door a few days later. Brilliant.

Same here, everyone moans that they can't see a doctor, but the system that is in place as an alternative is so much better.

Fill in a form at home telling them your symptoms, all the questions you want to ask, send in photos if needed, get a phone call from the doctor later that day, if they prescribe anything you need you then get it delivered to your home within 48 hours.

If after filling in the form/speaking to them they think you need to see a doctor, they get you in next day.

It's the bit that happens later that's not so good, if they do find anything wrong with you it can be a long-time waiting to get it sorted.

 

[Gill Courage]

Stop trying to ‘grow’ the UK. We don’t need growth, we just need to sustain what we already have.

It’s often a desire for wealth (and influence) that drives the need for growth. There is already sufficient money in the UK to sustain a decent life for everyone. It’s just that most of it is in the hands of a minority.

Which means tax those with huge houses, expensive cars and so on. Make it so they are better off with less.

No - we don't need growth. But the government "needs" growth so they have more money to spend and justify their jobs. The real meaning of "sustainable" is "able to be maintained" which is very different to the meaning most politicians understand. We need value for money and smart people making realistic plans. We have clowns who think that announcing spending is actually fixing something. It's not, so they announce more. Ad inifnitum.......

As said before by others ensure big businesses pay their fair share of tax.
Reduce the size of the state / number of public jobs / bureaucracy / number of external consultants used in government.



On separate note
NHS is so abused by all politicians for votes and this constant rhetoric that it is failing does nothing for staff morale. 111 is a waste of funds most end up in at GPs or ED divert the funds to front line / GPs. The ageing population means there needs to be more social and community based hospitals to improve flow of patients. Politicians need to be honest with the public that if we want it to "world leading" it will take world leading funding not statements like (analog to digital) or banging on about AI. Rant over

Do you actually understand how the economy works? Big business don't pay tax. Their customers do. Only 2 people ever pay taxes; the customer and the taxpayer. Reducing the size of the state would reduce the amount of tax we need to collect - so it's a great start.
Some taxes are very complicated and cost a lot to collect - they are bad taxes. Good taxes are simple and easy to collect as well as hard to avoid. The really, really simple way to do it would be to increase the main rate of VAT, put a lower rate of VAT on most things that are currently not VATtable and abolish all other taxes. Don't mess with it, don't change it. As prices rose, so would the VAT take. It would be very cheap to administer and they could sack half of HMRC (at least) and put many accountants and financial loophole hunters out of business. Win, win, win.

 

[Gill Courage]

This will annoy people

I say, make things harder for SME's, encourage big business to get bigger, aim to have British Amazon like businesses

Why do we need 10 small businesses, with directors who think they should earn more because they are directors, all 10 businesses have managers, all 10 businesses have a couple of employees, all 10 businesses have premises, all 10 businesses have accountants, all 10 business have insurance policies, etc .

When one big business only needs one director, one manager, 1 premises, 1 accountant, 1 insurance policy, to do the same thing.

Why if I want a washing machine repaired am I paying a local small business or self employed guy £60 an hour, when a big company can employ 20 repair guys on £15 an hour and charge me £45 an hour to have the same job done?

Because competition is the only thing that keeps prices down and innovation coming. There are no successful communist regimes. And that is what it would become because, if you have one comany doing anything, it is an arm of the state.

 

[UKSBD]

One day all restaurants will be Taco Bell........

No.
One day one big company will have an Italian, Mexican, Indian, Burger bar, Traditional, etc. restaurant in every town, rather than 20 restaurants owned by 20 different people.

 

[Gill Courage]

They will all be owned by the same people. Big Corporations don't just spring into being fully-formed. They grow that way from small companies.

 

[NickGrogan]

Do you actually understand how the economy works? Big business don't pay tax. Their customers do. Only 2 people ever pay taxes; the customer and the taxpayer.

huh? Can you explain how you think this works? What about b2b transactions?

 

[Newchodge]

That wasn't the question, and your statement is wrong.

What has happened to the total amount of money circulating in the UK?

Money circulating in the UK is sterling. In order to give you sterling the other party would have had to obtain sterling from this country. The amount of sterling in circulation remains the same. The ownership of it has changed.

 

[Newchodge]

huh? Can you explain how you think this works? What about b2b transactions?

I think they are thinking of VAT?

 

[Newchodge]

In your example, if that's a closed system, the value of sterling increases and the wealth of all those holing sterling goes up.

The value of sterling increases against what?

 

[Gill Courage]

huh? Can you explain how you think this works? What about b2b transactions?

Paid for by the customers of the customer business.
The only money coming into any business is SALES. Money collected from customers. That pays everything. Including taxes; corporation tax, VAT, NICS, business rates, income tax included in employee wages, dividend tax on shareholder profits.
It is ALL paid for by the customers. If nobody bought anything there would be no taxes collected.

 

[HFE Signs]

In theory, yes, but what about the threat to the environment? You cannot have infinite growth, the planet cannot survive. And that would not be good for the government's primary purpose.

That's a separate argument and really comes down to over population. If the ultimate aim is to rinse businesses of all they generate to save the planet then I can understand their methods.

 

[Duke Fame]

No.
One day one big company will have an Italian, Mexican, Indian, Burger bar, Traditional, etc. restaurant in every town, rather than 20 restaurants owned by 20 different people.

Which is where we were heading in the 90s with Restaurant Group owning
Frankie and Benny's and Chiquito etc, it's not that great. It's rather like the state owning everything such as when the state ran pubs in cumbria, the travel agent, the trains, road haulage etc. it was all crap.

 

[Duke Fame]

The value of sterling increases against what?

In this case, against the US$.

 

[Duke Fame]

No - we don't need growth. But the government "needs" growth so they have more money to spend and justify their jobs. The real meaning of "sustainable" is "able to be maintained" which is very different to the meaning most politicians understand. We need value for money and smart people making realistic plans. We have clowns who think that announcing spending is actually fixing something. It's not, so they announce more. Ad inifnitum.......

Do you actually understand how the economy works? Big business don't pay tax. Their customers do. Only 2 people ever pay taxes; the customer and the taxpayer. Reducing the size of the state would reduce the amount of tax we need to collect - so it's a great start.
Some taxes are very complicated and cost a lot to collect - they are bad taxes. Good taxes are simple and easy to collect as well as hard to avoid. The really, really simple way to do it would be to increase the main rate of VAT, put a lower rate of VAT on most things that are currently not VATtable and abolish all other taxes. Don't mess with it, don't change it. As prices rose, so would the VAT take. It would be very cheap to administer and they could sack half of HMRC (at least) and put many accountants and financial loophole hunters out of business. Win, win, win.

I agree with most of that except we do need growth because we are increasing the population. What we actually need is modest GDP per capita growth.

 

[Duke Fame]

In theory, yes, but what about the threat to the environment? You cannot have infinite growth, the planet cannot survive. And that would not be good for the government's primary purpose.

True, running the economy into the ground would certainly help reduce our CO2 emmissions, I can't recall seeing that as a goal in the manifesto but they missed quite a bit from the manifesto.

 

[SillyBill]

Couldn't disagree with the OP more, we all agree the country needs more funds? Don't include me in that group. To a public sector that hasn't increased its output per head since the fax machine was turfed out the office? The U.K. private sector is being killed on the altar of ever "more funding" for the U.K.'s terribly inefficient public sector . What are all these extra civil servants/NHS bods doing since COVID? Tens of k more of them and producing even less. My taxes are already at a level now where the motivation to do more is frankly not there, and we wonder why we're exporting millionaires at a faster rate than any country in the world. Brits have a social contract/model somewhere between Europe and the States, it seems we're being pushed toward the European model more but our productivity is pretty dire by comparison, even the much maligned French produce significantly more per hour worked. We seem to be kididng ourselves there is a way out of this without getting our public sector back to work - there isn't. Our private sector GDP/capita growth has been okay, if not spectacular, nailing them harder is supposedly the answer?

 

[Duke Fame]

Couldn't disagree with the OP more, we all agree the country needs more funds? Don't include me in that group. To a public sector that hasn't increased its output per head since the fax machine was turfed out the office? The U.K. private sector is being killed on the altar of ever "more funding" for the U.K.'s terribly inefficient public sector . What are all these extra civil servants/NHS bods doing since COVID? Tens of k more of them and producing even less. My taxes are already at a level now where the motivation to do more is frankly not there, and we wonder why we're exporting millionaires at a faster rate than any country in the world. Brits have a social contract/model somewhere between Europe and the States, it seems we're being pushed toward the European model more but our productivity is pretty dire by comparison, even the much maligned French produce significantly more per hour worked. We seem to be kididng ourselves there is a way out of this without getting our public sector back to work - there isn't. Our private sector GDP/capita growth has been okay, if not spectacular, nailing them harder is supposedly the answer?

Absolutely right. The public sector are producing less now that pre-covid. The have more than twice as many sickness days than the productive sector and the govt has just capitulated in giving out £20bn in wage increases.

Reduce the size of the state should be an imperative.

 

[SillyBill]

Simplify, simplify, simplify!

The tax code is deliberately complex as it affords the opportunity for the State to hide how much money it actually takes from people that are too dense or laissez-faire to work it out - for that reason it won't ever change.

£1 worth of profit... 25% taken as Corp Tax. The balance of after tax profit has to least go in part to settling our business rates bill (turnover tax), so further real deduction. Then the "remaining" after tax amount following Corp and Business taxes can be declared as a divi or income, where the gov will be taking as much as another 40%+ chunk if you earn even a reasonable amount of money (frozen tax bands mean no longer is this a lot). You then either spend it and give another 20% straight to the gov in VAT, put in your car, fuel duty etc. Or you "invest" it and if you are lucky enough to make an inflation adjusted loss (no indexation anymore) over 20 years you will now pay 24% capital gains tax on a real terms loss. Does anyone know how much of that £1 is actually left to sit in your bank account...beats me, but it ain't a lot. And if you die the gov will come and take as much as 40% of what has been leftover. Of course, you could choose to earn basically not a lot and these numbers don't apply but that is part of the problem, noone is motivated to earn if you are left with mere pennies in the £ after it filters through the myriad of taxes they take at every step.