Tax dinnae need tae be taxing

Independence is a great opportunity for much needed tax reform.  For decades, Westminster has failed to fix the inequities of the UK tax system.  We have corporations avoiding billions in tax, special rates for certain businesses, and declining wages forced upon the majority of workers whilst FTSE 100 directors enjoy increasing generous paycheques.

Westminster economic policy

If you believe that this doesn’t affect you then consider this: some families in the UK are paying a crippling 73% rate of tax, which is significantly higher than the EU average.  This makes it almost impossible to avoid debt or save for the future, and discourages people from starting their own businesses.  Compare this to those on the Sunday Times rich list and what is going on in the City of London.  Our tax system doesn’t just abandon the working and middle class, it actively harms them.

We’ve previously looked at some of the reasons why Westminster won't fix this situation, but that will become irrelevant with a Yes vote in 2014.  We will have a better democracy which promises more choice and more control for the people of Scotland.  What we do from there is up to us.  Only our imagination limits us.

We can't create a perfect system, but we can do much better than what we've got!

We can reduce rates for small businesses to make them more competitive, cut or scrap employers’ national insurance to encourage companies to hire more staff, raise the threshold of VAT, introduce a monopoly tax to make it easier for firms to break into stagnating markets, change copyright law to encourage innovation, switch to a straightforward sales tax for greater transparency, improve infrastructure and transport links to make trade more efficient, end different tax rates for different sources of income, start debates on how best to fund local government and create a futures fund to ensure that we leave our children a nest egg instead of crippling debt.

You ain't going to find Robin Hood at Westminster!

You may view some of what has been written above as being wasteful, yet Westminster is wasting so much more through foreign military bases, nuclear weapons, the undemocratic House of Lords, the excessive (and exclusive) tax breaks to certain groups and individuals and much, much more.  But none of the above is possible with a ‘no’, only ‘Yes’ empowers us to decide what values we want to live by.  We know that we’re getting a raw deal from Westminster but this will only change when we become independent.

Voting ‘Yes’ gives us choices.  What we do will be up to us.  Voting ‘no’ means that the powers that be will remain tax free.

And I don’t want that!

Drew

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