The life of ordinary citizens is not improved in the least by endlessly fiddling with paperwork and calculators for the sake of it, and certainly not by gratuitous governmental tax intrusion into their personal affairs.

To add insult to injury, some taxes raise relatively little in the way of revenue, others such as VAT are just EU-mandated taxes, the excise duties on fuel, cigarettes and alcohol are regressive and designed to manipulate and prohibit personal consumption, Eco-taxes are based on global warming mythology and are really a form of fledgling global taxation, others intrude shamelessly into people's family affairs (such as inheritance tax) and yet more are just a nuisance (such as the TV licence and car road tax). AWAY WITH IT ALL !

Once an effective national property tax is in place and has been shown to raise sufficient revenue, the following taxes will then be abolished :

MAJOR TAXES

THE ABOLITION OF INCOME TAXES

The present income tax system with multiple rates and ever-changing tax codes and allowances and its apportioning of yearly allowances weekly or monthly throughout the tax year is an accountant's dream but a nightmare for private citizens and businesses alike. The system is now so complicated that many employees up and down the country — whilst quite capable of earning the money and doing important jobs — are unable to properly check their own net pay at the end of each month ! This cannot be right — a fair tax system must be one that ordinary people can understand so they can give (albeit reluctant) mental consent to the deductions from their pay. A tax system that is based on simplicity would also be significantly cheaper to administer.

Currently, different rules apply to private citizens and businesses, creating grey areas where commonplace semi-business transactions are concerned — such as regular private selling on eBay, from which many people make considerable sums yet pay no tax on their 'earnings'.

The abolition of Income Tax will remove a great mass of unnecessary complexity from people's lives at a stroke.

Companies will benefit too, as they will no longer need to maintain detailed PAYE/NIC records for every one of their employees — who will benefit from that fact again, by their employers no longer being involved in the detail of their financial and tax affairs.

THE ABOLITION OF CAPITAL GAINS TAX

For decades the booming property market has allowed those fortunate enough to own their own home to make small fortunes from the increase in value of the family home. These significant sums — sometimes very significant sums, amounting to hundreds of thousands of pounds — have not been taxed at all, since owner-occupied property is exempt from all capital gains. This has always had the effect of widening the wealth gap between home-owners and those that rent their home.

Similar to taxing income, taxing capital gains involves the entire country in an inordinate amount of paperwork and inconvenience, forever calculating and recalculating their likely tax bill, juggling with tax-free allowances and exemptions every year, deciding whether to take financial benefits as income or capital, deciding whether to delay the realisation of a possible financial gain, etc etc. What a waste of everyone's time and energy — particularly as CGT now only accounts for 1% of total tax revenues.

We will therefore abolish Capital Gains Tax.

THE ABOLITION OF N.I. CONTRIBUTIONS

National Insurance tax is just income tax by another name, yet businesses are required to calculate and maintain records for separate employee and employer contributions and wrestle each week with thresholds and percentage calculations rather than get on with running their business. The fact that many state benefits such as the state pension and sickness benefit are based on a claimant's N.I.C. record also mean that the state has to maintain detailed records of all this stuff and that students, part-time workers and others with incomplete N.I.C. payment records either have to make additional payments at the end of the tax year or suffer reduced entitlement to benefit.

The National Insurance system is also unacceptably open to abuse — there are currently millions more National Insurance numbers in existence than there are members of the UK adult population.

National insurance Contributions are therefore too complicated and unnecessary.

We will therefore abolish all N.I. Contributions.

THE ABOLITION OF VAT

VAT is a tax introduced and regulated by the EU — which is why our own government couldn't completely remove it from fuel supplies as it wanted to (merely reduce it). It is a complicated tax and requires every business in the land to maintain extensive records and do a VAT calculation on every receipt and every payment. VAT is also an expenditure tax, so represents a double taxation of income and makes a nuisance of itself when private individuals come to try and purchase ex-business vehicles or when homeowners build their own homes.

We will therefore abolish VAT.

THE ABOLITION OF ALL EXCISE DUTIES

What people decide to spend their own hard-earned money on is no-one's business but their own and shouldn't be

something that the Chancellor gets to fiddle about with every year via the budget — every year bringing annoying increases to the already draconian and regressive level of tariffs imposed on the staples of people's lives — namely,

beer, spirits, wine, cigarettes and petrol. If the Chancellor wishes to give-up smoking and drinking and go everywhere on the bus then good luck to him, but he has no right whatever to impose his preferred lifestyle onto everyone else —

particularly the less well-off.

In spite of all their intrusiveness, duties on fuel, alcohol and tobacco combined only account for less than 7% of total tax revenues.

We will therefore abolish all excise taxes, making many staples and luxuries of life affordable again — life is hard enough!

THE ABOLITION OF INHERITANCE TAX

Originally perhaps, for the sake of attempting some sort of redistribution of wealth, this tax may have made sense, but it now catches all manner of ordinary people who are far from wealthy, even owners of terraced houses in the centre of London — perhaps where their families have always lived — and on an average wage. In spite of its intrusiveness,

inheritance tax accounts for only 0.7% of total tax revenues.

Also, a more blatantly intrusive tax is hard to imagine — removing great chunks of wealth from a loved one's estate just at the point of their death — as if the grieving relatives haven't got enough to deal with at such times. Inhuman government at its worst.

There are few things in life less the business of government than a parent passing their own money or home to their own family members.

We will therefore abolish inheritance tax.

The ABOLITION OF STAMP DUTY

Stamp Duty adds to the expense and worry of the already expensive and stressful process of moving home and represents a form of double taxation since money spent on house purchase has already been taxed as income.

Also, by adding another financial burden to the cost of buying a home, Stamp Duty makes it even more difficult for people to get on the housing ladder at a time when record numbers of young people are already reluctantly having to

abandon dreams of home ownership. Appalling.

Stamp Duty also accounts for only 1.8% of total tax revenues.

We will therefore abolish Stamp Duty.

THE ABOLITION OF COUNCIL TAX

A taxpayer's liability to council tax is based upon property valuation. This necessitates councils valuing and revaluing

every property in the country and defending those valuations against challenges from council tax payers who feel — often quite rightly — that their property has been put into the wrong band. Council tax is therefore an expensive tax to

administer.

Council tax also takes no account of the fact that many people, particularly the elderly, have quite valuable houses but little income — whilst they could realise some of the value of their home by moving to a cheaper

property or taking out a loan secured on their current property, this would be an extreme adjustment required of people (at a vulnerable time in their lives) just to pay their contribution towards the cost of providing a few local council

services. This tax also intrudes into people's living arrangements by asking whether people live alone or not.

Council Tax also accounts for only 4% of total tax revenues.

Therefore, and as part of a wider reform of local government structures, we will abolish council tax.

THE ABOLITION OF CORPORATION TAX

Profits generated by a business immediately benefit no-one, either simply being held as reserves in bank accounts or

reinvested in additional plant, machinery or buildings etc. The current practise of taxing company profits therefore leads to double taxation of the same economic activity, since the profits, when distributed to directors and employees as salaries or to shareholders as dividends, are taxed again via income tax.

Corporation tax is also a complicated tax, with all manner of allowances and reliefs, such that 40% of companies' corporation tax returns now contain errors.

The very existence of corporation tax and companies determination to avoid paying it, has led to the creation of tax-avoidance specialisms within the legal and accountancy professions, in turn necessitating inland revenue staff having to spend inordinate amounts of time deciphering every latest tax-avoidance wheeze. And on a more mundane but much wider scale, corporation tax has caused much unnecessary complexity in corporate structures and governance as even relatively small firms seek to arrange their affairs so as to reap the benefit of every available tax-break. All of this seems such a waste of talent and makes the working lives of so many so unnecessarily complicated.

The boost to business of a low-tax regime is widely recognised, with countries across Europe increasingly competing to offer the lowest rate of corporation tax — countries in Eastern Europe operate flat-rate taxes of as low as 13pc, Ireland offering 12.5pc and even traditionally high-tax France aiming for a long-term rate of 10pc.

Due to all the tax-avoidance measures engaged-in by business, corporation tax currently only accounts for 6% of total tax revenues.

Therefore, as part of a drive for simple tax laws and an enterprise-friendly minimum-bureaucracy culture, we will abolish corporation tax.

THE ABOLITION OF BUSINESS RATES

Similar to council tax, the business rate payable is determined in part by reference to the government's valuation of the property used by the business. Many businesses — particularly small businesses — occupy valuable town centre properties and so pay relatively high business rates yet make little profit. Many small businesses therefore end up paying a disproportionate amount in rates — sometimes as much as 35 per cent of their profits. Businesses should contribute towards the cost of provision of local services in proportion to their income, through general taxation on profits.

Business rates account for only 4% of total tax revenues.

Therefore we will abolish all business rates.

NUISANCE TAXES

THE ABOLITION OF THE TELEVISION LICENCE

In this media-saturated age, the idea of having to buy a separate little license to watch a few channels when hundreds of others are available free of charge seems rather ridiculous — it also requires yet more paperwork from license payers

(which is very nearly every household in the country) and an entire bureaucracy including detector vans etc to maintain the whole system. Absurd. We will abolish the requirement to have a TV licence.

THE ABOLITION OF THE ROAD FUND LICENSE

The nation's roads are an essential part of the national infrastructure from which everyone benefits whether they drive a car or lorry or not, so should be funded from general taxation like all other essential services. Abolition of the road fund license would save millions of people from unnecessary paperwork and the bureaucracy necessary to maintain the system.

THE ABOLITION OF BETTING AND GAMING DUTIES

The essentially private act of placing a bet is not an area for government to intrude upon with additional taxation,

particularly as the punter has already paid income tax on their stake money and the bookie pays tax on their profits like any other business.

Betting and gaming duties account for only 0.4% of total government receipts.

Therefore we will abolish all betting and gaming duties.

THE ABOLITION OF PASSPORT CHARGES

Charging a significant (approx. £75) fee for the simple provision of a passport is a regressive move (for rich and

poor are expected to pay the same amount) and charges taxpayers all over again for the provision of a basic (identity document) service that should already be funded in a more progressive way from general taxation.

THE ABOLITION OF ALL LOCAL COUNCIL CHARGES

By charging a single flat-rate for an increasing number of essential services, from parking to the removal of large

items of furniture, councils are operating a regressive charging policy that penalises the less well-off. By charging at all, they are making taxpayers pay again for council services that should already be funded from general taxation.

THE ABOLITION OF INSURANCE PREMIUM TAX

A tax similar in complexity to VAT, with different rates and with exemptions for some types of insurance, and requiring businesses receiving insurance premiums to register and account for these receipts separately. Ridiculous.

Insurance premium tax accounts for only 0.6% of total tax revenues.

Therefore we will abolish insurance premium tax.

NONSENSE TAXES

THE ABOLITION OF ALL 'ECO'-TAXES

Increasingly, odd-sounding 'eco-taxes' are being applied to both business and consumer purchases — from differential pricing of different types of petrol, to 'energy tax' on pains of glass of different thicknesses — the aim being, as ever, to try and alter people's behaviour, in the case of these taxes in a purportedly more 'environmentally-friendly' direction via (usually) regressive price-penalty manipulations.

Government has no right to seek to manipulate spending decisions in this way, neither is there any legitimate scientific basis for the underlying environmental issues purportedly being addressed by such taxes (which are actually intended as a form of global taxation — please see the environmental section for more details). Consequently, we will abolish all of the following taxes : air passenger duty, climate change levy, aggregates levy and the landfill tax (which has led to widespread fly-tipping).