UK riots: Refusing to pay tax because of rubbish policing

  • posted

Agreement on the useless nature of police, courts and government is near unanimous. There are countless reports of police just standing by while shops are looted, or coming many hours later. Looters who were caught are just given cautions or sentences so short it is an insult.

Furthermore, consider the historical backdrop of MPs dishonestly claiming exorbitant expenses while families burnt furniture to stay warm this winter. Or that the NHS pays £20 for a £2 loaf of bread.

Why should we give this corrupt, self-serving and incompetent government any more taxes?

If 1 in 10 people refused to pay taxes (council tax, TV licence, income tax, NI, ...) the government will be forced to either lower taxes or become half competent.

Reply to
Ðñïìçèåýò
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And it would cause overload of both the court system and, if the people also refused to pay the resultant fines, the prison service.

Reply to
Graham Murray

No, it will just mean that 1 in 10 people find themselves with a court order against them and end up having their assets seized by bailiffs. Those assets will then be auctioned off to pay for the amount of the court judgment against the debtors. Since there will be so many auctions going on, prices will drop. That's good news for the rest of us who can buy things seized from the defaulters at knock-down prices. So yeah, go ahead.

Mark

Reply to
Mark Goodge
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  • posted

????? put f>

I'm afraid the tax levied is not proportionate by even an order of magnitude to the services received.

The courts and enforcement system simply can not cope with millions of tax rebels.

Reply to
Προμηθεύς

How do you propose that employees "rebel" against PAYE and NIC deductions by their employers? Quit their jobs?

Reply to
Robin
  • Vote on answer
  • posted

Fortunately the government has found so many possible ways to tax us, that there are so many possible ways to rebel :)

Reply to
Ðñïìçèåýò

Only the wealthy can successfully avoid paying their taxes.

Reply to
Mark

Simple. Stop buying petrol or diesel.

Reply to
Mark

f>>

Is the army a service?

Reply to
AC

Dear Prometheus,

Oh, don't be so silly. Blame "corrupt, self-serving and incompetent" police and local or health authorities if you like, but this is hardly the government's fault. The fault lies at a far lower administrative level than central government.

For reference, furthermore, the MPs' expenses scandal took place under the last mob. This government has been in office for barely a year, and has had to take hard and unpopular decisions to correct the financial profligacy and deep-rooted incompetence of the Blair/Brown years. It is to their small credit that we are not (yet) cast alongside Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Italy.

Remember that Labour's proposed cuts, had they won the May 2010 election, were going to be just as savage, only slightly differently arranged. Of course, the Coalition may very well prove itself to be just as useless as previous governments, but it hasn't yet. It's ridiculous to condemn it only 15 months into a 5-year 'repairing' parliament. Change takes time, for goodness' sake.

Reply to
Charlie

You don't have to. There's the Riot Damages Act which pays the victims of riot damage from government, sorry: OUR, funds as compensation.

Reply to
root
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  • posted

3 wasteful wars, a wasteful NHS, greedy politicians, fat cat civil servants, useless police, you name it we got it.

Why pay taxes to support these? It is good money in hard times down the drain.

Reply to
Ðñïìçèåýò

Or more likely, the government ends up wasting resources that could have been invested in improving policing, the NHS, schools, etc. on extracting taxes from these 1 in 10.

Reply to
My two cents
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  • posted

Oh ffs!

As we well know another £7 billion for, say, the NHS isn't going to do squat. It will just be squandered on a gee whiz new IT patient records system and have nothing to show a few years on.

And how much have we spent on 3 wasteful wars? Fine men and women are dying for no apparent reason abroad while ferals run rampant in our street. It is those ferals we should be shipping to Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya!

So your argument that any money to government will go to good causes is a load of tosh. The less of our money the government has to spend, the better.

Reply to
Προμηθεύς

Furthermore, consider the historical backdrop of MPs dishonestly claiming exorbitant expenses while families burnt furniture to stay warm this winter. Or that the NHS pays 20 for a 2 loaf of bread.

Why should we give this corrupt, self-serving and incompetent government any more taxes?

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Because there's a law that says that you have to :-(

tim

Reply to
tim....

You might bear in mind that extreme action such as you promote might lead to extreme responses. For example, if you recklessly and repeatedly refused to pay your tax then the state might withdraw the services you receive - eg no NHS treatment, no response from the police or fire services, no hearing in the courts. Indeed, there is a precedent that might well resonate with those around you: the status of "outlaw".

Of course in order to introduce legislation for "outlawry" the UK might well first need to leave the EU and also repudiate the ECHR. But we can't have everything..

Reply to
Robin

Except the courts and ancillary services cannot process that many defaulters which was one of the decisive factors in the collapse of the Poll Tax.

Reply to
Osric

ò

I'm not arguing anything of the sort. I'm arguing that the less money government has to spend, the less money the government will spend on good causes.

Reply to
My two cents
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  • posted

?
ýò

You can give the government £100 billion a year, and maybe (yeah right) £1 billion would go to actual good causes. If history is anything to go by not only is the government's attempt to "do good" ham fisted, it is often misguided, inefficient and causes more harm than good (regime change in a distant land comes to mind).

Why not keep the money for yourself and do good in proportion to your generosity and conviction?

Reply to
Προμηθεύς

?
ýò

An untested and risky experiment. You clearly have more faith in anarcho-capitalism than I do.

Reply to
My two cents

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