
PAG public meeting
The Tax Gap - is it fair?
A talk by Mark Solly
(former IoM Assessor of Income Tax)
7.30 p.m. Monday 19th September 2011
Manx Legion Hall, Douglas
Although most of us dislike paying our taxes there is a general acceptance that they are necessary to provide essential services from which we all benefit.
With VAT receipts reduced it may be that the next government will consider increasing income tax from the existing standard rate of 10% and the higher rate of 20%.
"A tax should be seen to be fair in its impact and, broadly speaking, a persons contribution to tax revenue should be proportionate to their income", according to the Treasury Minister.
Yet her budget decision to abandon the Attribution Regime for Individuals ( ARI) as from April 2012 may mean a reduction in tax take and further develop a two-tier tax structure which she admits was created with the introduction of a tax cap in 2006.
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Comments
Craine - I don't think personally that it's time to raise taxes again...
Bell - If zero rate was to go or the 10% was to be enhanced in any wider way would lose a substantial part of the economy....
Watch the programme on your computer (only until 18.09.11) -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007tjmv
The Speaker: Madam President, notwithstanding the requirement to comply with European directives in respect of Zero-10, is there not a real danger that unless provision is made, we will be entering, in the Isle of Man, a two-tier tax structure, where the wealthy will be able to roll up income within a company and the ordinary earner will go on paying tax as before, and clearly a two-tier structure like this is going to be blatantly unfair and undesirable?
The Treasury Minister: I am not sure that I agree with the Hon. Member. I believe that we are trying hard to prevent a two-tier structure, but, obviously, we have a tax-cap situation in place at the present time which, in itself, introduces a two-tier structure.
I think what we are trying to do is to produce a fair tax regime for all the residents in the Isle of Man that will avoid the possibility of rolling up income.
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