The BNP would lift the income tax allowance to £15,000 as a first step towards abolishing it completely. To make up for this revenue, they’d increase consumption taxes such as VAT and tariffs. (source) They would increase the inheritance tax threshold to £1,000,000. (source)
The BNP have strong ideological objections to income tax, believing it to be tax on effort and hard work. Their 2005 manifesto (source) went so far as to claim that “there is actually very little difference between the feudal mediaeval serf … and the position of the modern wage slave who must work half the entire year before reaching his ‘tax freedom day’.”
Income tax may not be a popular tax, but the BNP’s proposal is the most regressive tax system proposed by any political party in Britain, left or right wing:
- They’d give the rich a tax break. By removing income tax, the BNP would in effect by removing the one progressive element in our tax system, giving the better off a massive tax cut.
- They’d massively increase the cost of the weekly bills. To pay for this tax break for the rich, the BNP would have to massive increase consumption taxes such as VAT and tariffs. VAT would have to reach something closer to 50% than 15%. Because the poor spend as a proportion of their income far more than the rich, this would hit them by far the hardest. This is by far the most regressive tax policy of any political party in Britain.
- An inheritance tax cut that we’d all to have to pay for. The BNP are copying the Conservative’s tax pledge to raise the inheritance tax threshold. However the Conservatives plan to pay for their proposal with a levy on non-domicile workers in the UK economy, while the BNP wouldn’t allow foreign workers in their economy at all. Instead, the £3 bn cost would be borne by the rest of us.
If the BNP are so keen to protect Britain’s working class, then why are they so keen to hike their taxes?
Tags: policy
Ahem,the champions of the working classes the bnp are NOT.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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“Tax breaks for the rich, tax hikes for the poor”
I’ll bet a groat with Sam that the Conservatives will do this first & that’ll be within 2 years.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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WTF, the Conservatives do not have a policy to abolish income tax.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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SShhhhh!!!! Or folks will start confusing the BNP with the Conservatives !
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There isnt a lot of difference anyway,or havent you noticed before?
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Dear Jonathan, I never said that the Conservatives had a policy to abolish income tax, it would be a vote winner though!
You are being clever with words like a typical politician!
What I did was quote your headline “Tax breaks for the rich, tax hikes for the poor” & said that the Conservatives will do that first.
That isn’t saying, when taken literally, that the Conservatives will abolish income tax.
I am betting that the Conservatives, as has happened in the past, will have “Tax breaks for the rich, tax hikes for the poor” which isn’t the same thing at all.
It is a more general unspecific thing to say without any detail & easier to prove in the future when you do that very thing, so that I can score a point, or not as the case maybe.
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WTF, out of interest, do you agree with the BNP’s policy here?
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I have a theory that the Conservatives don’t actually want to win this election as you know what a crock the finances are in & that you would get a great deal of pleasure watching Gordon squirming about in the mess of his own making, as all the chickens come home to roost.
You know that Gordon has left you nothing but scorched earth in which to put your green shoots of recovery & that is overshadowed by the EU & what it wants.
One thing the EU may sabotage by regulation, is the City which I assume you’re “banking” on to help make the figures look better?
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I think generally speaking we pay too much tax, a lot is wasted.
Maybe the voters should have a clearer choice on what the money is spent on.
I think a lot of the foreign aid is questionable & as for the spending on lobbyists, think tanks, consultants & QUANGO’s, well I would invest in a big axe & go on a chopping spree.
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I should have said debt not deficit but again I feel we spend money that is wasted, if that could be cut then less deficit surely would be the result?
As for the debt, it depends who it is owed to & why, some of them I would be only too happy to do over.
Maybe living more within our means might be a good idea?
The situation of the last few years is a busted model, we can’t run an economy that way.
…
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For some reason my answer has gone up the page for the moment at least, the duplicate can be deleted.
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[...] BNP would replace income tax with increased consumption taxes. (source, see Monday’s post). The BNP would bring in tariffs to protect British workers. (source, see last week’s post). The [...]
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What policy do you have this week?
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Much as I would like to take your document at face value, I will study the links to the source first.
At first glance I can’t actually see the words “We will abolish income tax”.
“dominiccarman67″ might he be the son of that famous libel lawyer?
He seems to be more obsessed by Nick Griffin than you or I are & that is saying something.
It is not healthy for an adult to be that fixated, a teen crush maybe, but that looks like big time rejection & revenge.
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Your best bet is this Nick Griffin interview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aAtktgE6Cs
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Ah it is that fixated chap again, his obsession seems positively unhealthy.
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OK Jonathan, he says he is looking at the idea but whether it would ever be official policy, well we are a long way away from that day.
I believe most parties have looked at the idea in the past but you know what they say about “Politicians have never met a tax they didn’t like” unless it was a tax on politicians themselves, how about a CO2 tax on their emissions?
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WTF, it’s been in the last three manifestos.
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Damn I knew there was something I should have read!
Mind you who in their right mind believes in manifesto promises?
I have to admit I like the idea, especially for the lower paid not the super rich.
I would prefer to close loopholes that the rich use, maybe go for a 20% flat rate across the board above a certain income level.
In the end it comes down to how much does the state need & the best fairest way of raising that.
I think a lot of the present spending is without the consent of the majority of the public.
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The problem is WTF that the BNP are committed to keeping the level of taxation as a percentage of the economy at the same level as it is now. So if you cut one tax, you have to raise another.
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Well if they take an axe to the foreign aid & QUANGO’s amongst other things, then they wouldn’t need to keep the taxes at the the same percentage level, unless they fall prey to the “Didn’t meet a tax they didn’t like” scenario.
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Unfortunately, that won’t work either as:
a) they’re already using those cuts to cut the deficit
b) they’re planning huge spending increases (building new schools, paying doctors more, more spending on border defence etc)
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Ah so that’s the British jobs for British workers then!
Sounds good to me as the Conservative government won’t do this & we will probably either fall back into recession or struggle for years with the lead weight of the bankers bad bets around our necks.
All the while spending billions on other peoples interests not our own.
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I’m confused WTF – do you think the money should be used to a) cut the deficit? b) splash out on public spending? or c) abolish income tax?
You can’t have it all three ways.
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I have a big issue with the deficit & paying it back, as I didn’t borrow the money, I got little benefit, if any from it & feel no moral obligation to pay it back.
There’s the whole issue about banks making money out of nothing, Quantative easing, fractional reserve banking & all that, audit the Fed, audit the EU as well.
I feel a lot of public spending is wasted & savings could be made, it depends what you regard as public spending.
If you are going to have tax, I suppose some income tax like the 20% above a certain level but I want less taxation in general.
I think the level of taxation at the moment is not justified, as so much is provably wasted.
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Unfortunately its not as simple as just not paying the money back. The deficit isn’t what we owe – it’s the difference between how much our taxes raise and we spend. If you’re planning on not paying back any debt, then understandably nobody will want to lend to us any more, which means we’ll have to start the cuts right away.
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