Berries from the Roadside

Today I undertook a duty and combined it with a little pleasure. Although the final target for my tax return is, like everyone, the last day of January, the last piece of information I needed popped through my letter box last week. So I got it out of the way at the weekend.

The pleasure was the walk on a beautiful summer’s day to my nearest postbox – about 4 Km away – to send it to HMRC. And the wild raspberries ripe by the roadside enroute.

With nephews and nieces living in four other countries with different tax policies I can see some of their effects.

In Sweden and in Denmark my relatives pay much more in income tax but are living in some of the happiest nations in the world. And are experiencing a substantially higher standard of living than here.

In Queensland, Australia the tax/income balance is similar to here but in a country with so much space, it is much cheaper to buy a plot of land to build on. So owning a house is much easier.

While in England my nieces and my cousin should pay on average about £400 more each year in Council Tax than they would in Scotland. And, as average earners, a very little less in income tax than we do.

But were any of them to want to start a business, the picture is very favourable to Scotland. With our small businesses paying no Business Rates at all, it is so much easier to get going here than for our friends – and relatives – south of the border.

And with small businesses – north and south of the border – being in total a large source of employment, it may be no surprise that our employment numbers are so much better here in Scotland. In particular for young folk just starting their working lives – we’re in the top 3 areas of Europe.

Nineteen out of twenty leave education to a positive destination – a job, further study, etc.

Because government having tax income enables positive policies for individuals and communities.

Contrast ourselves – UK, not just Scotland – in our approach to providing health care for our citizens with the USA where I also have many relatives, albeit a bit more distant.

The costs associated with health care in the USA amount to about 15% of the country’s income. No other developed country spends more than 10%. And yet their outcomes are dramatically poorer, particularly around pregnancy outcomes for both mothers and children.

And given that health costs bear heavily on businesses there, it is a real drag on the US economy. And the biggest source of personal bankruptcy.

A wealthy elite in the USA led by an – this is as charitable as I be – eccentric and irrational billionaire President wants to take 20+ million of their citizens out of state supported health care so that their taxes can be cut.

So when I posted my tax return, I remembered that my money’s going to good cause, health care for all.