unlimited branding or much needed money?

[nick mercedes]

Should the UK be pimped like this?

"Next stop: Wonga Circus? The arguments for and against branding Tube stations"

"This week it emerged that London Underground stations may be allowed corporate sponsors under plans being considered at City Hall. The money-spinning idea, which some predict could raise £136m a year, would see landmark stations renamed and Tube lines given a corporate makeover, paving the way for Burberry by Bond Street, Virgin Euston and the Vodafone Line."

"Long-suffering commuters on the London Underground could be spared future price hikes in the cost of their tickets through sponsorship of the networks lines and stations, according to a new report published by the Conservatives.

It is estimated that up to £136m a year could be raised by such a system, sufficient to freeze fares for a full year, whilst a more ambitious target of £204m would cap rises at inflation for three years.

Untapped Resource: Bearing Down On Fares Through Sponsorship, asserts that 82 per cent of Londoners would back such a move – although the ultimate decision rests in the hands of the mayor, Boris Johnson."

(www.thedrum.com/news/2013/06/03/tories-call-london-tube-sponsorship-freeze-fares#GTB2xDZmlDqgi0lg.99")

Who will come forward to sponsor Doncaster?

 

[neilrr]

Possibly Friends, Families and Travellers

 

[nick mercedes]

Possibly Friends, Families and Travellers

Pikeycaster?

 

[Deleted member 37751]

Londoners need all the financial help they can get; they work 18 hours a day to pay for a chicken coop sized flat that they can't afford and for cars that they can only drive at 3mph because the traffic is that bad.

 

[nick mercedes]

Londoners need all the financial help they can get; they work 18 hours a day to pay for a chicken coop sized flat that they can't afford and for cars that they can only drive at 3mph because the traffic is that bad.

Travellers in Donny only need fear the occasional killer slag heap:

BBC News - Colliery landslip suspends rail services

 

[Harrythedog]

Would it not be easier to get some of these corporations to pay their fair share of UK tax so we all can have a decent and fair priced public network travel system

 

[redbaron]

Would it not be easier to get some of these corporations to pay their fair share of UK tax so we all can have a decent and fair priced public network travel system

Can you prove they don't - or like the tabloids do you not understand company taxation?

 

[Harrythedog]

Can you prove they don't - or like the tabloids do you not understand company taxation?

Not saying they are doing nothing illegal but these loopholes need to be closed because the economic consequences could be horrific

 

[redbaron]

What loop holes? Ones like the writing off interest payments against Corporation Tax? Ones that most small businesses take advantages of?

 

[Harrythedog]

No, the ones where manufactured internal costs are attributed to a sister/parent company in a low taxed country thereby drastically reducing the gross profit on which corporation tax is calculated. Some have even done this to an extent that an actual paper loss on their UK dealings are recorded thus enabling losses to be carried forward into future years CT assessments. Hence why some companies have appeared before Commons committees trying to defend such actions

 

[Dryce]

Can you prove they don't - or like the tabloids do you not understand company taxation?

Well the complaints that I've seen haven't been the assumed tabloid hysteria.

It's about doing business on one side of border and *artificially* incuring costs on that side of the border and noving the profit across to the other side of the border.

So you set up Redbaron SARL in a low tax country and licence Redbaron techniques and recipes to your *active* Redbaron Ltd business in UK and then use this *artificial* cost to mitigate your UK taxes by moving the profit to Redbaron SARL.

Is this new? Not really. Large multinationals have been doing stuff with cross border transfer pricing and loans for years.

The US has been trying to deal with this problem with inter-state taxation.

The EU could have dealt with it by dealing with centralised fiscal policy and tax harmonisation first rather than recklessly setting up the Eurozone first.

 

[stevieb15]

Well the complaints that I've seen haven't been the assumed tabloid hysteria.

It's about doing business on one side of border and *artificially* incuring costs on that side of the border and noving the profit across to the other side of the border.

So you set up Redbaron SARL in a low tax country and licence Redbaron techniques and recipes to your *active* Redbaron Ltd business in UK and then use this *artificial* cost to mitigate your UK taxes by moving the profit to Redbaron SARL.

Is this new? Not really. Large multinationals have been doing stuff with cross border transfer pricing and loans for years.

The US has been trying to deal with this problem with inter-state taxation.

The EU could have dealt with it by dealing with centralised fiscal policy and tax harmonisation first rather than recklessly setting up the Eurozone first.

Why not just set our corporate tax levels at or near the same level of the lowest...or is that too simple.

 

[Dryce]

Why not just set our corporate tax levels at or near the same level of the lowest...or is that too simple.

You potentially end up in an international tax discounting war. You risk reducing your taxation yield overall.

And you haven't fixed the structural problem that created the imbalance in the first place.

 

[Clkrichard]

If companies are operating within tax laws and regulations as framed by government and policed by HMRC, and we as a nation are whingeing about that, I wonder what needs to be changed and by whom ?
Tax planning is as old as the hills !

 

[Deleted member 37751]

Now, call me a bit dense, but what would be the problem in doing away with National Insurance and simply having a flat rate of tax of say 20% up to £30k and then stepped up to 30% by say £60k and above?

No sidestepping, no off-shore bank skulduggery, just a simplified tax system.

 

[Dryce]

Now, call me a bit dense, but what would be the problem in doing away with National Insurance and simply having a flat rate of tax of say 20% up to £30k and then stepped up to 30% by say £60k and above?

No sidestepping, no off-shore bank skulduggery, just a simplified tax system.

That doesn't fix the multinational CT problem in any way.

Though it would go some way towards fixing some of the issues with employees, sole traders, and small companies.

The problem with CT isn't about rates - it's about the way a business can be structured to operate in one tax jurisdicion but make its profits in an other.

 

[Clkrichard]

Now, call me a bit dense, but what would be the problem in doing away with National Insurance and simply having a flat rate of tax of say 20% up to £30k and then stepped up to 30% by say £60k and above?

No sidestepping, no off-shore bank skulduggery, just a simplified tax system.

Are you suggesting income tax at 20% on all earnings from zero to £30k or would personal allowances stay in place ? Thats not a million miles from where we are now. Cutting 40% tax to 30% would be popular no doubt but fiscally ruinous. Cutting out NI ? Employees would like that and employers would absolutely love it and the economy would fail ! Its just a tax on income like income tax and allowed a former government to promise to not increase income tax and promptly increase NI !
I would love to see tax simplification in the UK replacing arguably the most complex tax system in the world but the political will isnt there and the establishment have a vested interest in blocking it

 

[camerafodder]

We could just put tube drivers on a salary commensurate with the intellectual and physical challenges of the job (say 20K/annum) and save £112M/annum on the salary bill alone.

 

[stevieb15]

You potentially end up in an international tax discounting war. You risk reducing your taxation yield overall.

And you haven't fixed the structural problem that created the imbalance in the first place.

But that's what we have now...and what exactly is wrong with reducing taxation yield and allowing earners to decide how to spend their money.
The only structural issue I can see is some regimes are more avaricious in their tax gathering activities than others.

 

[nick mercedes]

We could just put tube drivers on a salary commensurate with the intellectual and physical challenges of the job (say 20K/annum) and save £112M/annum on the salary bill alone.

Imagine how much we'd save if we put bankers and politicians on a salaries commensurate with the intellectual and physical challenges of the jobs they do.

In fact if we had perfomance related pay they'd all pay us to come to work.