| Topic: | Re:National Insurance | |
| Posted by: | Richard Greenhough | |
| Date/Time: | 14/10/15 11:01:00 |
| "There is surely a strong argument for abolishing national insurance and merging it with income tax?" I believe numerous Chancellors have looked at this and shied away when they realised the difficulties involved. There would be losers as well as gainers and - as with the community charge aka poll tax- the losers would kick up such a stink that the government would be in deep doo-doo. It would also mean that the headline rate of income tax would climb from around 20% to around 30%, which would immediately undo all the efforts made since the 1980s to make the UK tax regime competitive internationally. "There would also need to be a new payroll tax to replace the employers' element of NI.." Politicians are very wary of admitting that Employer's NI is a payroll tax, which can work to discourage employers taking on staff, and would therefore be loath to make it more explicitly so. |