Why pay tax

A tax (from the Latin taxo; meaning "rate") is a financial charge or other levy imposed upon a taxpayer by a state to fund various public expenditures.

Why pay tax? Imagine you are working for a manufacturer and get pay £1000 a month 20% of which is taken in tax. Why can't you donate this money to something you choose? Well you employer couldn't manufacture without a legal system that protects their rights, private ownership of land, transport systems, energy production, an educated workforce, patent protection, judicial resolution of disputes, national defence, protection of trading routes. So as one might be tempted to say to Mrs Windsor pay your taxes.

What about the missing tax?

Should we have any confidence in this Governments ability to tackle missing tax? Consider the case of Jeremy Hunt. Just before the 2010 election, the culture Secretary legally reduced his potential tax bill by £100 000 through a transfer deal involving his education companies office building, which - however you look at it is a lot of VAT rated pasties.

It is the responsibility of the Government to design the tax system so that it collects the tax it needs. Evasion, involving deception, non disclosure etc, should not be tolerated but people cannot be blamed for responding rationally to the tax system as it is. Which is what Jeremy Hunts cleaver accounts did.

My Father was born in 1929 and died in 2007. For the first 50 years of his life the stock of the Government debt was very much higher as a share of GDP than it is now. But strange to say, I never remember him once blaming his parents and grandparents for leaving his generation with such a high debt burden. Or indeed talking about it at all.

The debt actually fell during the 1980's and 1990's as inflation eroded it in real terms. Nobody thought to crucify the nations public services, it's security and the wider state over delivering an artificial debt ceiling.

The reduction of the debt is an obsession motivated by the ideological animus against public services and public provision. Britain's national debt is comfortably affordable today - even moderate by historical standards. To represent it as an economic enemy number one is just wrong.

The stark truth facing Britain is that the institutions of our capitalism-the firm, the bank, the shareholder- have become profoundly dysfunctional.

The financial crisis confronted every western country but was most acute in Britain because banks widely over - expanded their balance sheets to please their disengaged shareholders and over - rewarded director teams.

Yorkshire may have generated more jobs than the whole of France last year, as Osborne boasted - but they were disproportionately low - paid and insecure jobs and zero hours contracts.

 A progressive government would shore up its tax base and smooth the pattern of spending by borrowing to avoid such a roller coaster ride. Today's conservatism makes such rational behaviour impossible. Thus the absurd cuts.

Before further cuts are imposed the Government could find more tax revenue. For example there are 180 000 potential taxpayers with very high incomes who claim non - domiciled status pay no tax. Britain is the only country in the world to offer non - dom status. Abolish it and tax receipts would be boosted by £18bn per year. Revaluate property from 1991 values, introduce more council tax bands, and there is suddenly an additional £12bn to £15bn in the coffers. Suddenly there would be no financial crisis.

Let's unleash an apprentice revolution. Let's double our research and development. Let's create a northern powerhouse rather than just talking about it. Let's build a great Country let's vote Labour.