AIthough it is unrealistic to expect politicians not to be politicians, it is very disappointing that shadow chancellor George Osborne's proposals for tax simplification have been launched in an adversarial and party political fashion. It is equally disappointing that Kitty Ussher, Labour's City minister, has responded in an equally adversarial fashion. The level of the total national tax take and the particular taxes that make this up are very fair and proper areas for party political debate. There are clearly socio-economic and political judgments concerning the most equitable manner to extract money from taxpayers (or the electorate, as politicians would think) to meet the perceived level of public spending and, in the shorter term, the amount of public borrowing considered appropriate. The recent furore concerning the abolition of the 10% tax bracket, the reduction in the rate of corporation tax and the reform of capital gains tax all involved underlying political value judgments about how taxation should be collected.
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