Next year's Council Tax charges will be announced soon and there are already complaints that it should be replaced by a tax based on "ability to pay". Which means Local Income Tax. The only trouble is that Income Tax is not based on "ability to pay". Far from it. If you can afford it you will pay for advice on how to exploit all the loopholes. Because taxes payable by individuals or companies, based on something called "income", inevitably contain loopholes. Moreover, definitions of "income" are ultimately arbitrary. It cannot be otherwise, partly because the boundary between the formal cash economy and the informal family and community economy is blurred. I fix my plumber's computers and he fixes my central heating system and, roughly, it balances out, give or take the odd bottle of whisky at Christmas. Then again, I can ask friends to give me a bill now and again so that they can claim expenses to set against their other income. All thi...
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