There’s a group called 2020 Tax Commission looking at how Britain’s tax system should look in the year 2020. All well and good. Except that the commission is made of white, middle aged men, 90% of whom have an economics or tax background. I’m being a bit unfair. There’s one woman.
But seriously folks. Where’s the diversity in terms of age, gender, background, expertise or experience? Here’s a prediction. The group will have lots of meetings and will eventually come up with something that is nothing more than an extended official future.
They may debate a flat tax scenario (a fixed tax percentage for everyone earning more than a certain amount) but I very much doubt they will get as far as discussing a scenario where direct taxation is totally removed in favour of indirect taxation relating to individual (or institutional) behaviour (i.e. you link tax to what people spend or consume rather than linking it to what people earn or save).
Come on guys, shake it up a bit!
http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/2020tc/2011/01/meeting-minds-map-future-tax.html
I have a question but not on taxes. What do you think about this http://pkp.sfu.ca/omp
Wow – my first reaction is too much information! My second reaction is to print everything out on paper and find somewhere quiet to digest it. Let me flick it over to my friend Oliver, a publisher, futurist and someone currently looking at the future of books in Australia. He’s also the person I worked with the the scenarios project for public libraries.
One immediate thought – I think it is important to capture the whole process around published works (I think I read recently (in a Canadian paper?) about a library buying the whole archive of Salman Rushdie, which included old computers, emails, the lot!).