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The concern of tax rules being unclear and causing confusion and distress is a real concern, but that's off topic. Uber willfully misunderstood tax law to thei
by berdario 3y ago
The concern of tax rules being unclear and causing confusion and distress is a real concern, but that's off topic.
Uber willfully misunderstood tax law to their advantage. Were most other taxi companies charging VAT as tour operator even before Uber started? If so, you would be right that this a concern of unclear rules and arbitrary application of them...
But that's not the case
https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/any-answers/should-taxi-firms-use-toms-for-vat https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/any-answers/should-taxi-firm...
> Given government spending is out of control
UK spending is barely above average for industrialised countries. After a decade of austerity, British people are getting poorer and poorer.
- gadders 3y agoThere was no austerity. Government spending actually went up during that period.
- X0Refraction 3y agoTotal spend or age adjusted per capita? Those are very different things when you have a growing and ageing population
- gadders 3y agoTotal spend went up.
- berdario 3y agoYou're wrong. "Spending per cent of national income" it went down every year, from around 2009 until the pandemic. https://obr.uk/forecasts-in-depth/brief-guides-and-explainers/public-finances/ https://obr.uk/forecasts-in-depth/brief-guides-and-explainer...
- afavour 3y agoSometimes I wonder about people who make such transparently incorrect statements like “there was no austerity”. When confronted with the data like you provided do they actually absorb that information? Usually it seems the answer is no but I don’t understand how you internalise it in a way that doesn’t conflict with your priors.
- gadders 3y agoGovernment spending actually went up during that period. See chart 1: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/public-spending-statistics-release-may-2022/public-spending-statistics-may-2022 https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/public-spending-sta... You can try and redefine austerity into whatever best fits your politics if you like.
- gadders 3y agoWell done on redefining austerity.
- dnh44 3y agoP&G was able to argue in court that Pringles are a type of cake rather than a type of potato chip (crisp in the UK) which means VAT doesn’t apply to them. In the UK cake is sold free of VAT. I guess my point is that there is clearly a precedent for success by doing this sort of thing. Unfortunately.