Description
About the author xi Introduction xiii 1 Taxes on your income and earnings 1 Income tax and national insurance 1 National insurance contributions 3 Paying tax 7 Taxes on high earners 10 The Laffer curve 13 Sports, prizes and betting 16 With betting, the tax inspector always wins 18 The poverty trap 20 2 Taxes on what you spend 23 Value added tax 23 How VAT works 27 Zero rated and exempt from VAT 30 Europe, Brexit and VAT 32 Customs and excise 34 Excise duties 36 Fuel duty and green taxes 41 Oil and gas extraction 44 Green taxes 45 Global warming 47 3 Taxes on what you own 51 Capital gains tax 51 Paying capital gains tax 54 Taxes on homes and property 56 Inheritance tax 57 Stamp duty land tax 59 Council tax 62 Buy to let 63 The mansion tax and wealth taxes 65 Taxes on pensions and saving 67 Other ways to save 71 How to live comfortably while paying almost no tax at all 72 4 Taxes on business 77 Taxing business 77 Tax on the self?]employed and small businesses 78 Tax on companies 79 Personal service companies 81 The tradesman’s entrance 84 Multinationals and international tax 86 Territorial taxes 88 Tax havens 90 A bit of BEPS 91 Where does big business make its profits? 93 Tax competition 97 Taxing what you can’t touch 99 Taxes on financial transactions 103 5 Taxes evaded, avoided and reformed 107 Film finance: how governments encourage planning, avoidance and evasion 107 Tax evasion 113 Tax avoidance and the general anti?]abuse rule 117 A changing climate 119 Avoiding income tax 122 The new fight against aggressive avoidance 124 Tax planning 126 Tax reform 128 1. Stop cutting income tax and start cutting national insurance 130 2. Start the 45% tax rate at 100,000 instead of 150,000 130 3. Tax companies according to their accounting profits 130 4. Expand the scope of VAT 131 5. Introduce a minimum income tax rate for the wealthy while abolishing most income tax anti?-avoidance rules and incentives 131 Conclusion: the Three Golden Rules of tax 133 The First Golden Rule: Lots of small taxes together add up to make big tax bills 133 The Second Golden Rule: No matter what name is on the bill, all taxes are ultimately suffered by human beings 134 The Third Golden Rule: Taxes are kept as invisible as possible 135 Index 139
