Tax - Should I be allowed to ‘opt out’???

Income tax, council tax, road tax, VAT ... tax tax tax ... I am always paying tax ... and really not getting much 'out' ... ... I have no choice in some of the tax I pay, (or where it 'goes') they are enforced on me ...

So Should I be allowed to ‘opt out’??? - on the understanding that any tax I opt out of I can't use those services ever ... i.e. if I opt out of benefits contribution, I can never claim benefits if I ever need to ... if I opt out of NI, I have to pay hospital fees etc etc if I then use ...

I can still decide to pay my road tax - as I intend to use the road mind ... pick and choose contributions ...

You get the idea ...

I think it makes perfect sense ... I just have to be prepared to foot the bill (or take insurance against) anything I don't put into ... but I don' have to contribute to other people stuff (unless I choose to).

Who would vote me in if I went for PM?

[Wideboy]

if you go to prison we will start a petition

[Lissa]

Originally Posted by Wideboy

if you go to prison we will start a petition

Free the Org one!

I can see your point and I like the idea. The biggest problem is that the government don't actually use road tax to maintain the roads after all, when you consider the amount of road tax payed every year and the state of some of our roads then it doesn't add up!

[tigersaw]

So there would be no schools because only a small proportion of wage earners (those directly wanting children minded whilst they work) would pay, no NHS because most of us are healthy, no state pensions, no armed forces etc etc

Does anyone have any idea which countries citizens are taxed th eleast on things such as income, roads, fule etc? Is there a direct correlation between amount of tax paid and quality of life and quality of public services etc?

[Wideboy]

i see your point but you have to say we do get taxed to much, how can they justify saying "right this week you've earned this much so we're going to have this amount of it"

there is a interesting program on tv soon about how MP's and such claim benefits i think its dispatches

I agree Wideboy at the end of the day NI contributions should surely be set at a certian amount per person, possibly related to age? AT the end of the day it isn't the case that those that earn more should use the NHS more, and why should I be charged more to provide a police service etc than someone earning less than myself. I also think council tax is an absolute con, why is my rubbish more expensive or cheaper than anyone elses to collect. I appreciate that there is more than just rubbish collection that council tax pays for but you get my drift.

Originally Posted by tigersaw

So there would be no schools because only a small proportion of wage earners (those directly wanting children minded whilst they work) would pay, no NHS because most of us are healthy, no state pensions, no armed forces etc etc

There WILL be schools, just parents have to pay 100% ... and why shouldn't they? There WILL be hospitals, just no NHS!! Isn't that how it works in other countries? People get health insurance, or pay-as-you-go ... its very simple ...

Armed forces is a bit more tricky ... some people might want to pay in, but the big question is "do we really NEED them these days anyway?" Ok, so we have poked our noses in elsewhere, but when is the last time we were 'invaded' and needed to protect ourselves????

Or we could have a smaller mandatory tax to cover defense and the handful of gov officials required to make the 'cogs' turn, but able to 'opt out' of stuff that is more 'individual' like schooling, benefits, policing, NI etc

What peeves me off about road tax is that around here they fix roads that don't need fixing and leave the ones that do!
As for actually paying, it sucks but is needed