In search of a fairer system of taxation | Letters

Readers respond to Polly Toynbee's suggestion that the inability to raise tax has become Britain's political disease

Polly Toynbee's suggestion that higher taxes for all are inevitable (The refusal to raise tax has become our national disease, 6 November) ignores numerous different approaches, changes in priorities and potential savings that could mean we can all enjoy higher levels of investment in public services without raising taxes or increasing borrowing.

In September, AAT published a short report highlighting 27bn of annual savings that could be made without raising taxes or increasing borrowing - by scrapping car tax and fuel duty and replacing it with a pay-as-you-drive system, by simplifying inheritance tax, and removing higher rate tax relief for pension contributions, to name just three of our proposals. Such changes might require politicians to tell some uncomfortable truths but, given that the outcome would be a simpler, fairer alternative to raising revenue, they are truths the electorate would be more likely to accept.
Phil Hall
Head of public affairs and public policy, Association of Accounting Technicians

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