We need to wean ourselves off the tax treadmill. It suppresses incentive. 40% income tax, 20% on what you spend the remaining 60% on. Then 40% on whatever savings produce, even when this interest, dividends, or capital gain, comes from savings out of previously taxed income. All this is wrapped in hugely complex tax legislation. That's why there's tax evasion and why there is a lucrative industry around it. Then, ultimately, you can't even give it away, not without triggering more tax rules (e.g. IHT). What a mess.
I spent 2 years helping 3 NHS trusts unravel contracts. I gave up in the end, demoralised by 2 steps forward, 2 steps backwards. The huge beaurocracy results in no one being in charge, not the Commissioners, not the managers, not finance, not consultant doctors, but each think they are and only rarely pull in the same direction. Huge overhead waste. All operating to ration the money that is finally spent on the end product, mending patients. I was wasting my time and their money.
If the civil service and the rest of the public sector operate similarly, and I would expect they do, we are soaking up a huge proportion of the UK's talent, funded by tax payers, to ration what remains available for the final services provided. The true proportion of tax income which is actually productive, used on services, would probably shock us.
It would take political daring, vision and conviction to drastically improve this. That can't happen whilst policies are shaped by focus groups and popularity / opinion polls. It won't change in my lifetime. I wish it would. The consequence is we discourage entrepreneurs and investment, instead we chase the same money round in tax and spend circles, while we grow our balance of payments deficit, because we no longer produce what we buy. Happy New Year everyone 😂
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