Competition : Suggest a Green Tax Cut
Lets have some suggestions for Green tax cuts in the comments. Guido might even dig out a prize, say a copy of the Little Red Book of New Labour Sleaze for the best.*
Exempt bicycles and insulation from VAT was one suggestion. Maybe windmills should be VAT exempt, along with watermills and solar panels too. Sailing yachts are very environmentally sound, exempt them while we are at it...
Suggestions in the comments please...
*"Best" defined as whatever Guido likes.
Exempt bicycles and insulation from VAT was one suggestion. Maybe windmills should be VAT exempt, along with watermills and solar panels too. Sailing yachts are very environmentally sound, exempt them while we are at it...
Suggestions in the comments please...
*"Best" defined as whatever Guido likes.
66 comments:
Guido,
You could start by cutting the brake pipes to all of Prescott's Jag's.
And if you cut his throat whilst you are at it, it would save about breeding twenty cow's a weeks, also cutting down on methane.
A 'win, win' sittuation
Cars should get a green tax cut.
They save people walking, which saves energy and means they have to eat less food which means we don't have produce or fly in as much food thereby reducing the carbon footprint.
No VAT on energy saving light bulbs.
CO2 cut : shoot all cats and dogs :
The carbon footprint from meat based pet foods is causing massive bovine flatulence. Nevermind the 4x4s that all vets drive.
Tax cut - zero VAT on bicycles.
1 - Edward Heath taxed LPG, making it the same cost as petrol, ths limiting its appeal in the UK, while on the continent it is very widely used.
Cut taxes on LPG.
2 - Cut tax on tax, such as pertains in car purchase and fuel. Not gree, but honest !
Alan Douglas
Weight based transport tax - skinny people pay less for train and aircraft fares as they burn less CO2 transporting them.
Government ministers to pay for their limo's on a per use basis.
When they find out the real cost, for ordinary folk, then we might have done with all this bloody nonsense about carbon footprints, global warming and all the rest of the tosh from the Eco lobby, who are just out to create jobs and influence for themselves. Rather typical of a bunch of snivelling Fascist Stalinites who are smug, sanctimonious and regrettably still alive and kicking.
Cuts in corporation tax for businesses that use minimalistic, environmentally friendly packaging for electronics goods instead of those horrendous plastic monstrosities that add to the bulk and make it damned impossible to open anything.
Same for retailers that refuse to stock said over packaged, overproduced crap.
So little incentive suggested so far.
1) Simply make "green" household improvements (eg loft insulation, those silly roof windmills, solar panels etc)deductible from INCOME TAX. Were this to happen I bet there'd be far more interest in going green (even if it is a waste of time).
2) Reduce (to say nil) car tax on any car more than 3 years old. This might encourage people to hang onto their existing motor rather than buying a new one. The carbon footprint of running even a gas guzzler is surely lower than the carbon footprint of manufacuring a new car.
As it is the sheer number of people causing the environmental damage, then a green tax deduction of a hefty % off income tax for those who don't have kids. I'm not inflicting future generations of environmental damage, and I'm not contributing now with the school run; in fact, I'm not using the education system at all. Because I don't have to pay for kids for twenty odd years, I'll build up extra wealth - that the state can insist I use to pay for my health care when I am decrepit, rather than relying on NHS care.
Oh, and I want to be buried under a sapling when I do shuffle off. No point in using up all that gas in the Crem. So tax-free cardboard coffins...
Tax cuts for householders who shove candidates' election leaflets up their arses, rather than just throwing them away.
Inspired by a Tory MP's excuse.
1. Give a tax break to those who share a bed "to save money".
2. green tax breaks for those who have sex in public restrooms rather than using up resources in a hotel.
Tax breaks for private coy's who introduce treadmills in prisons, for prisoners to march on, generating clean renewable energy, making prisoners suffer and atone for their crimes, and providing a positive cashflow aspect to the Prison Service.
Tax breaks on recycled cardboard boxes to encourage people to abandon their homes in favour of a more sustainable future on the streets.
How about a tax cut for people not mentiong green taxes and a great tax hike for people and politician's (politician's are not people) who mention green taxes.
No free jollies for anyone on taxpayers money, no illegal wars,and no Ken Livigstone, that should make a vast difference.
One year free of all taxes for anyone who reduces the CO2 generated by a politician. By killing the latter.
Encourage people to walk. Remove VAT from footwear!
Green paint should be VAT exempt
Super unleaded petrol - it burns far more efficiently than normal unleaded but is taxed at a higher rate - why?
Nuclear power stations - no CO2 emissions there - although tell that to the enviromentalist campaigners outside Sizewell last week - idiots!
In fact we should tax these eco-nutters, The Guardian and the Independants for all the pollution these idiots emit.
GB likes tax credits (for the kiddies) so let's extend that scheme (it has, afterall been SO successful) and bring in Human Excrement tax credits for those who donate their human waste to facilities that turn it into energy. See http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/jun/21/energy.renewableenergy & http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/768672.stm
Remove VAT on handkerchiefs?
Even the Grumpy might like that one.
Easier than any other and makes people really think
Make income tax allowances dependent on what you buy, thereby saving the administration and collection of VAT. If I spend £5000 a year on green fuels, or a green car, or a green whatever, then I get £5000 worth of tax allowances to be paid the next year. That would encourage the poor and rich alike and make collection and admin easier.
I think a tax on breathing too quickly, at say 17.5%? Because when people rush around they exhale more CO2 than 100 nuclear power plants Blah Blah Etc Etc! so the slower you do things the less tax you pay and the less work you do the more money you have!
Well it works for the government!
1. abolish Rail Warrants for MPs. Make them pay for rail travel out of their own pockets (not claimable as expenses) and we'd soon have a rail system we could all afford to use.
2. Tax marriage and abolish child benefit. That should discourage a few folk from breeding.
3. Maroon Jeremy Clarkson with a hungry polar bear on a melting ice floe. See how funny he finds global warming then.
Tax stupidity ! then mps would be paying into the trough instead of hoovering it up.Im sure it would be very easy cos they are very stupid.
Just cut taxes down to under 10% of GDP and have done with it. Green tax cuts are mere tinkering.
Exempt people from Stamp Duty on house purchase if they are moving to a place less than 5 miles from their place of work. Current stamp duty encourages people to commute long distances because it costs so much to move house.
Exempt butt-plugs from VAT to reduce methane emissions.
Zero rate VAT on juicy-ripe veradant vintage bogeys.
wolfie 8:19 PM
You boring old plonker! You sound like the painfully dull offspring of two interminably tergid regulations from the civil service handbook on conditions of service!
2:25 PM
Alternatively, james, you could simply smoke about one extra zoot per day and you'd likely be able to fly direct to any destination of your choice. (but bear in mind that return-trips from non-ganga growing countries could prove tricky)
martin curtis 2:59pm
Yep! And a woman should have the right to be sold a single 'plug and go' tampax at any high street tobacconist's!
marquee mark 3:03 PM
I'm sure you'll be even happier if we just roll you off Clacton pier!
Halve the number of Ministers and, at a stroke, reduce hot air production in Westminster by 50%
andrew ian dodge 3:06 PM
Oh pleeeeez NO!
Recycle all copies of the Great (Former) Leader's autobiography into a new Thames flood barrier. Hopefully it will take all of 'em.
barry 5:36 PM
Sounds like a loada crap to me! Ha ha!
english democrat 6:35 PM
At last! You've come up with a sensible suggestion!
No car tax for two seater sports cars as they are always driven with at least 50% occupancy, unlike Priuses which are often wastefully driven at only 20% occupancy
Let's have a do-nothing subsidy given to landowners who do absolutely nothing commercial with their land. The lucky few need only show that they have only used their holding for private, non-commercial purposes to qualify for a whopping tax break. Do I see some lords-a-leaping?
A sliding scale of tax on wine according to 'food miles'.
The same on beer and spirits.
Cheap French plonk, cheap real ale and cheaper single malts :)
De tax on de baked beans man, especially afta a spliff or four....
Babies... a 75% tax on every second (or maybe third, not made my mind up yet)child, and make it a progressive tax so that its still 75% of household income for high earners as well. And no tax loop holes for those creative accountants! Less people, less consumer goods needed, less pollution needed to produce these products etc etc. Imagine, less people, less politicians needed, utopia.
There, problem solved, next question?
So that I can do my video tribute to Guido I'd rather have a T-shirt than another book.
The average household produces 300kg of recyclable waste paper predominately from newspapers. It can end up in land-fill sites, be burnt, or be recycled (all of which use up resources). What about incentivising people to stop producing newspapers in the first place.
Tax cuts for producers of on-line media.
Howzat for a shameless attempt to win a competition!
Environmental measures, from tree protection orders to anti-pollution measures are the preserve of the wealthy. The poor are too hungry and desperate to worry about polar bears or sea levels.
For example, visit a Phillipino slum and you won't find a Toyota Pious, nor even a low energy light bulb or a leafy park.
For many, environmentalism is a luxury, like organic food.
So the biggest green tax cut would be to cut income, VAT and corporation taxes together, and correspondingly reduce public spending. This could boost the UK's trend economic growth rate and this in a few years we could all afford more green measures.
The anon who proposed tax cuts for online media was me.
Building on what Serge@9:40 said, Flat Income Taxes are probably the biggest green tax.
Huge reduction in Tax Accountants
Huge reduction in IR staff administering the complex codes
More Efficiency
More Productivity
More intellect bent towards making money not stopping Grabber Gordon taking money.
...or no VAT on house repairs, so more housing stock is refurbished and not knocked down and rebuilt, especially as modern housing is less likely to last 100+ years like old brick built buildings.
Bring back capital punishment and extend its application to every crime (e.g. riding a bike without lights). The exceptions being murder and terrorism: murderers should be awarded £1000 from public funds, while terrorism should be part of the national curriculum.
Ban safety belts. Abolish tax on tobacco. Scrap the Health 'n' Safety Executive. Compost Patricia Hewitt. Abolish the National Health Service (which is anyway not national in its scope, presides over declining health, and provides fuck-all service). Sterilize everybody. Etc., etc. And all because:
THERE ARE TOO MANY HUMANS.
That means you!
VAT reductions are likely to be blocked by the EU, who have a vested interest in 1% of the the 17.5%.
Some real ideas:
1. Lower vehicle duties on 6-stroke car engines (yes, 6-stroke - look it up).
2. 100% capital allowances for investment in microalgae based photobioreactors for fuel production and carbon sequestration.
3. Best of all - removal of fuel duty. Why? Simple - fuel duty does not reduce car usage but it does limit other uses of green energy. This is a bit of a lonmg explanation, so bear with me. The road network is generally reckoned to be at full capacity at least at peak hours, so a removal of fuel duty is unlikely to lead to a substantial increase in road use. Rather it is a form of revenue raising for the government - approximately £30bn if you count fuel duty and VAT on fuel duty - compare that with the £50 billion or so from corporation tax. But when the government collects this tax it may appear to be a cost but in reality it displaces other taxes. £30 billion is equivalent to reducing the top rate of income tax for all top rate payers by about 11%. People on lower incomes buy and use a car out of necessity, but a higher earner, perhaps on £100k has more discretionary spending. Given an extra £6.6k a year he/she has more scope to buy a bigger car.
But the real harm comes from the use of biodiesel. We pat ourselves on the back knowing if we put B5 or B10 biodiesel in our cars and ignore the other 95% or 90% that comes from fossil fuels. We aren't really cutting emissions at all. All we are doing by giving tax breaks on bio diesel is habding vast profits to the growers of oilseeds. A few years ago Malaysian plantation owners were very happy to sell their refined palm oil for about the same price as crude oil ($300 per ton). Now the price has skyrocketed to $800-900 a ton. Why to that price? Because that is just below the price (without added duty) of fossil fuels with duty added.
In other words all that happens when we add fuel duty to fossil fuels and make biofuel tax free is that we boost the profits of foreign oilseed growers.
Is that so bad? Well, apart from anything else, if the price of oilseed based oils was down at its historic levels closer to its cost of production, we could generate electricity from vegetable oils and sell it at a price comparable to other sources of electricity. A ton of oil could produce around 4MWh of electricity and another 3-4MWh of heat for industrial use or domestic heating.
Is that any greener than using it in a car? Well yes, because if it is used in a static process like a power station, the CO2 given off can be sequestered, perhaps into an algae plant where the CO2 is turned back into more fuel, whereas any biodiesel used in a car produces CO2 that goes into the atmosphere.
The ultimate green tax-cut would be a No-children tax credit.
No people, no anthropomorphic.
Go on, it's for the children!
Sort of.
Easy, set Fuel Duty to the correct level to internalise the carbon emmissions. Which if you use the (rather high) numbers from the Greenies Stern Review comes out as 10p per litre.
Council tax rebate for using recycling bins.
I only say that because I can't think of any way of harvesting the green energy that would be generated by beating the living crap out of Jeremy Clarkson. Maybe by smashing his face in with a hand-rotated electromagnet inside a huge roll of copper wire?
astro-turf lawnmower 10:48 PM
For fuck's sake don't start a stats argument again! The last one did my head in! It just got WAY out of hand!
its not as mad as it sounds said... 7:58am
And so what bracket would Gordo come in then?
grotweiler 11:20am
Bring back capital punishment and extend its application to every crime (e.g. riding a bike without lights). The exceptions being murder and terrorism: murderers should be awarded £1000 from public funds, while terrorism should be part of the national curriculum.
Ban safety belts. Abolish tax on tobacco. Scrap the Health 'n' Safety Executive. Compost Patricia Hewitt. Abolish the National Health Service (which is anyway not national in its scope, presides over declining health, and provides fuck-all service). Sterilize everybody. Etc., etc. And all because:
THERE ARE TOO MANY HUMANS.
That means you!
Your degree of humanitarianism is perfectly admirable, grotweiler, old chap! But fiscal calculations dear boy! Have you done your sums on this one?
mikey said...4:37pm
"I only say that because I can't think of any way of harvesting the green energy that would be generated by beating the living crap out of Jeremy Clarkson. Maybe by smashing his face in with a hand-rotated electromagnet inside a huge roll of copper wire?"
No, nice idea Mikey - but far too complicated to implement successfully. Run with charcoal 6:49pm's idea - let the polar bear eat him and collect the shit-rich JC-dung for use as slow-burning fuel-bricks in Eskimo stoves.
the consensus here seems to be that government is environmentally unfriendly...
Easy. Give a green tx cut to familys that stay together. Stoney silences will save energy and the heat generated from occasional bursts of shouting will remove the need for central heating.
Simple
If we could get rid of Cameron, that'd be quite a bit of hot air we could save.
(I see he's noticed today that there are actual immigrants causing this immigration thingy we've been starting to notice just recently. What a brilliant chap he is.)
halve HGV tax for those who do the following. Only use the main roads between 11pm and 6am.
subsidise companies to produce recycled oil for commercial and private vehicles with diesel engines. only tax 10p per liter
tax cuts on smaller bikinis. less material, less co2.!
not that it'd make a difference but bikinis are great to look at...
Give tax cuts to people who fart into carbon capture devices.
rory 9:30am
Great thinking! And tax relief for women with big knockers coz when you stand there gaping at them open-mouthed with your tongue hanging out you're physically frozen for a few moments and not exhaling any CO2 at all!
Trevor Ivory Con N Norfolk discovered that white pixels screen bloggs use more CO2. Guido, you need to blog with a darker background.
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