[Finance] Cut tax or leave alone?

[Thunder Bolt]

Health Insurance can be sold in a number of different ways.

In The Netherlands there is no excess for a visit to hospital or a GP, the policies are mandatory, relatively cheap (around 115 Euros a year for a basic mandatory insurance plan) and cannot be lapsed even if you are in prison.

Insurers and MGAs make very, very little on these - their money is made with sold add ons such as dental or physiotherapy insurance. Physio policies I have seen are incredibly generous. 36 free visits per policy year. When I was running regularly I used to spend a fortune on sorting out my sports injuries.

In the same country your employer will pay sickness or disability pay and claim it directly from an insurer. There are no state workers involved and therefore no delay in payment.

I no longer have an employer.

 

[Guinness Boy]

I no longer have an employer.

So you're no longer entitled to statutory sick pay then.

But if you were Dutch you'd still have health insurance with no excess on emergencies and no exclusions or underwriting for pre-existing conditions for less than 10 Euros a month

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

So you're no longer entitled to statutory sick pay then.

But if you were Dutch you'd still have health insurance with no excess on emergencies and no exclusions or underwriting for pre-existing conditions for less than 10 Euros a month

Similar thing in Germany. In fact, part of the 14% you pay for health care includes a “national insurance” premium. Another part is for your old age care home stuff. Everything is covered.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I haven't made multiple appointments......... yet - but I'm considering it! I've got an appointment with a doctor in ten days time - but I made the appointment last month! One ailment per appointment is the rule - there are four things that I would currently like to have checked out, and they've agreed to consider two of them in this one appointment! Nice of them!
A third complaint was to be dealt with by a phone consultation - which never happened. No loss really - a small skin leision which doesn't seem to want to go away, and I don't see how they can possibly tell what that is withoit looking at it! Could be a little ulcer, could be an infected insect bite, could be skin cancer (hope not though!), or somethig else altogether - but they all look the same down a phone line!

What I'm saying is, not everyone who books more than one appointment is necessarily doing it for selfish reasons!

Don’t worry, it will all be fixed once the 350 million a day you voted for starts flooding into the NHS; you must feel quite smug?

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Every poster has a different tax solution.

This reminds me of discussions about the true intentions of God.

There is an elephant in the room here. I think it may be flat rate tax, same percentage for everyone, with an increase in the minimum wage, paid for by savings in the ludicrose tax collection and mitigation industries. But that's simply yet another tax solution and like all the others has no intrinsic merit.

So 'what gives me a tiny extra advantage' is always the bottom line. Sad. And a bit mad.

 

[Barnet Seagull]

So 'what gives me a tiny extra advantage' is always the bottom line. Sad. And a bit mad.

There are some who dont see taxes as punitive but rather as a valuable contribution to make everyones lives better. Its not always the bottom line, some are altruistic.

The damage done to children by underfunding education, social services and a race to the bottom of benefits is scandalous.
I would happily pay more tax to help solve these issues.

 

[BenGarfield]

Make rich people and companies pay taxes seems like the most sensible thing to do.

Of course another way of going about it is to remove all taxes and see where it takes you as a society. All those who moan about taxes because they believe they need a new stereo more than they need nurses, firemen and whatnot would pretty swiftly be taught a lesson.

What nobody seems to realise on this thread is that in countries with their own sovereign currency such as the UK, Japan, USA , (e.g. not in the Eurozone or tied to the dollar) taxes are not there to fund government spending, but perform other functions, for example, imparting value to the currency, ensuring social equity, health and environmental reasons (tobacco, green taxes etc), and also to cool the economy down and help surpress inflation.

 

[Bodian]

Stop all the loopholes - so everybody / every company pays what they should be paying would be a start.

 

[Recidivist]

Stop all the loopholes - so everybody / every company pays what they should be paying would be a start.

You should be a politician with that soundbite!?

What loopholes did you have in mind and what should companies be paying?

Governments set tax breaks (aka loopholes) and can remove them. It’s a global problem as all countries compete to attract investment by playing with the tax regime.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

As an observer in the political threads, interesting to see so many apparent labour supporters asking the public to pay for the NHS. I’m not saying it’s wrong, in fact I agree, but imagine the backlash if the current government dared to do this.

I think DNAs (did not attend), NHS appointments should be charged as well.

 

[tubby]

Whilst I understand the recent rise in NI contributions is to provide more staff which will help reduce waiting lists it is not fair on those of us who have private medical insurance. Although I use NHS services my last surgery was done privately so I should not have to pay the extra. Whilst they cannot have different NI rates I should be able to claim tax relief on my private medical insurance

 

[Uh_huh_him]

Whilst raising corporation tax seems like a popular option, it may not be particularly effective. Currently corporation tax makes up less than 10% of the UK’s total tax take, so it’s not a particularly significant tax, especially when compared to employment taxes (PAYE and NI) and VAT.

There is a school of thought that by lowering corporation tax rates to encourage more inward investment into the UK, can actually increase the total tax take, by virtue of more people being employed in the uk and consequently more people spending money on VATable goods and services in the UK.

Yeah trickle down economics, awesome theory.
Any day now, the poor are going start reaping the benefits of all the tax breaks to corporations and the mega rich pver the past 40 years.
Any day now.....

 

[Since1982]

Whilst I understand the recent rise in NI contributions is to provide more staff which will help reduce waiting lists it is not fair on those of us who have private medical insurance. Although I use NHS services my last surgery was done privately so I should not have to pay the extra. Whilst they cannot have different NI rates I should be able to claim tax relief on my private medical insurance

Speaking as someone who has been fortunate enough to have private health care for years, I could not disagree more. That is the path to an even greater disparity between health care haves and have nots. Plus the staff who work in the private sector were almost certainly trained in the NHS yet the NHS is not benefiting from that. And of course when you need emergency treatment it will be the NHS that provides that as well.

 

[cunning fergus]

There are some who dont see taxes as punitive but rather as a valuable contribution to make everyones lives better. Its not always the bottom line, some are altruistic.

The damage done to children by underfunding education, social services and a race to the bottom of benefits is scandalous.
I would happily pay more tax to help solve these issues.

Fair play to you kidder, it’s people like you that contribute to making the U.K. a better place to live. Here’s a link to voluntarily paying more tax. Best of British to you, let us know how you get on?

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/voluntary-payments-donations-to-government

 

[cunning fergus]

I would broadly agree with all of that. I would add that we need more tax take, not less, also to maintain debt repayments from spending on Covid, furlough payments, and latterly Ukraine etc.

Either the Tory leadership candidates are not being honest about the wisdom of tax cuts, or they are incompetent, or they don't care and will say anything to get the gig.

But to strike a balance, it isn't always about the solution being throwing money at the problem. A few years ago, there was a study of GP practices, into why it was so difficult to get an appointment. Being peak Brexit, you can guess who the scapegoat was - immigrants. But the study revealed that the main cause of lack of GP appointments, was a small number of patients who booked loads of appointments far into the future - in case they needed them. How about that? Just how selfish can people possibly be?

You need to keep up with the data, immigrants place pressure on A&E because they don’t have GPs.

John Denham wrote an article about it a few years ago regarding the effects of immigration in his Southampton Itchen Constituency; you should check it out it’s a refreshingly honest take.

 

[GOM]

Guernsey doesn’t have the NHS. This is a list of charges in A&E

View attachment 149927

I wonder how long the wait is in A&E.

 

[Eric the meek]

You need to keep up with the data, immigrants place pressure on A&E because they don’t have GPs.

John Denham wrote an article about it a few years ago regarding the effects of immigration in his Southampton Itchen Constituency; you should check it out it’s a refreshingly honest take.

I wasn't talking about A&E.

I was talking about how immigrants were wrongly blamed for making it difficult to get an appointment with a GP, but that the study undertaken by the surgeries themselves, found differently.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Yeah trickle down economics, awesome theory.
Any day now, the poor are going start reaping the benefits of all the tax breaks to corporations and the mega rich pver the past 40 years.
Any day now.....

The reality of trickle down economics with the Tory party

 

[Simster]

Short of reforming tax completely...

Increase inheritance tax
Reduce tax on first x of income
Reverse national insurance rise
Significantly reduce stamp duty
Increase tax on online sales
Reduce business rates

Lots I agree with there. Inheritance tax should be massively hiked. It is the fairest tax of all. And either we reduce business rates or eventually we lose the high street. Unless we just want to shrug our collective shoulders and say it's an outdated concept. However, I think that would be a mistake - we'll all miss it when it's gone.

I'm not sure about stamp duty but I do feel we should massively tax second homes/buy to lets. The fact is, second property ownership doesn't help the economy at all, it just increases the cost of housing preventing first time buyers from entering the market. There needs to be better ways of getting people to invest rather than pouring it into second homes. Perhaps increasing ISA thresholds, I don't know?

Obviously we could leave corporation tax as it is and just increase receipts by simply allowing our companies to do business with the EU without fear of tariffs and other barriers to entry. Not necessarily re-joining but absolutely paying for access to the single market.

 

[Driver8]

Guernsey doesn’t have the NHS. This is a list of charges in A&E

View attachment 149927

There must be some sort of subsidy as those prices wouldn’t begin to cover the costs.

I had a shoulder op privately through my work PMI scheme a few years back and the cost was over £12k.