Taxing Question

He may be Prime Minister come next May, so I’ve been paying attention to what Young Dave has to say on taxation, being someone who pays taxes. And he’s not impressed with what are termed “high marginal tax rates”, which translates as the move to hit the best off with a 50%, rather than just 40%, income tax rate.

So is he going to state unequivocally that the Tories will abandon the higher rate? Well, yes, but then the assertion has a suitable caveat. According to the Guardian, he’ll bin the 50% rate if it doesn’t raise any extra revenue. But then, any tax that doesn’t raise revenue might as well be scrapped. So why not go that bit further and commit to removing any tax measure that contributes so little that it’s not worth the candle?

Being a freelance worker, I have an acid test for Dave and his chaps: the measure that is called IR35. As I noted a while ago, this has raised a mere fraction of the money it was supposed to, and may even be costing more overall than had it not been enacted in the first place.

So, how about it? Or, perhaps, it will go quiet. Again.