TaxInsight.co.uk
Title
Tax Insight - save and avoid tax, tax adviser, tax planning
Description
TAX INSIGHT has been published monthly since January 1982. Creating the practical approach to the journal is the editorial and writing team which consists wholly of practising tax consultants.
We aim for a style that is unique in tax journals - easily readable, avoiding baffling legal jargon, but without sacrificing technical quality or originality of thought. Each issue contains comprehensive supplementary technical notes for readers who wish to study the topics in greater technical depth.
save tax, avoid tax, tax adviser, tax planning, tax publication, company tax, family tax, business tax, company car tax, capital gains tax, small business tax, taper relief planning
Of fundamental importance is that any tax must be fair that is, citizens should be taxed in proportion to their abilities to pay (a concept that Smith defined somewhat ambiguously as in proportion to the benefit they derive from the government). A tax is considered fair if those who have the means to pay are assessed either in proportion to their capacity to pay or, depending on the situation, in proportion to what they receive from the government. Both ability to pay and benefits received, therefore, are criteria of fairness. When government services confer identifiable personal benefits on some individuals and not on others, and when it is feasible to expect the users to bear a reasonable part of the cost, financing the benefits, at least partly, by taxing the people who benefit is considered fair, as in the repayment of loans to students by subsequent taxation. (Obviously, this method does not apply to such services as public welfare payments.) Taxation in accordance with appropriately applied standards of ability to pay or of benefits received is said to meet the requirements of vertical equity (because such taxation exacts different amounts from people in different situations). Just as important is horizontal equity the principle that people who are equally able to pay and who benefit equally should be taxed equally. Clarity and Certainty The application of a tax should be clear and certain. This principle, considered very important by Smith, has often been underestimated in modern tax systems (in which open and impartial administration usually can be taken for granted). Where the application of taxes is uncertain and arbitrary, however, the public can have no confidence in the system. The old British tax on numbers of house windows was disliked and widely resisted partly because its rationale was unclear; likewise, windfall taxes introduced by a government on gains produced by the policies of a previous government can appear uncertain. Convenience Taxes should be easy to calculate and collect. Compliance with income tax laws increased dramatically where a system of deducting tax from earnings before they are paid has been introduced.
