RAPID RESPONSES
Tax by extortion
[Re: Don’t ignore the moral arguments against high taxation, yesterday]
This is a drum worth banging, and banging again. The moral arguments against taxation apply not only to taxes that the government describe as such, but also to official extortion at the local level – tyrannically enforced and excessively high charges, fines for parking, and similar easy targets. In short, taxation by stealth. In addition to Eamonn Butler’s examples, the way government uses advertising is wrong. Paid for through our taxes, government at all levels attempts to create a climate of opinion in which it is morally acceptable to take private citizens’ money away. For our own good.
Stephen Anson
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Costs of hardship
[Re: This Tax Commission has a practical way to fix the UK system, Monday]
I welcome any report that attempts to fix the tax code. But its purpose should not just be to reduce tax, but to build a just and inclusive society. Matthew Sinclair’s aim is to cut spending, and the overall burden of tax, so that people have more money in their pockets. Which people, whose pockets, whose burden? The Treasury doesn’t calculate the savings to the taxpayer from substantially reducing poverty. And this government has lost sight of what hardship means. It has placed disproportionate burdens on the backs of the poorest, while easing the life of the already wealthy.
Rev Paul Nicolson
Taxpayers against Poverty