Devious stealth taxes fleece poorest pensioners (Islington Liberal Democrats)

Islington Liberal Democrats <Islington_ld@cix.co.uk>

Devious stealth taxes fleece poorest pensioners

August 4, 2003 12:00 AM

New figures from the Office of National Statistics, obtained by the Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor, show that the poorest pensioners in the UK are being fleeced by Gordon Brown's stealth taxes, shelling out 26% of their total income in indirect taxes. By contrast those in the top 1/5th of pensioners by income pay only 13% of their gross income in indirect tax. The poorest 1/5th non-pensioners are hard hit even harder paying out 30% of their total income with the top 1/5th non-pensioners only 10%. All these stealth taxes may help Brown avoid income tax rises, but they hit ordinary people hardest. Labour's tax system is unfair, devious, and has got to be reformed. Its time we have a fair tax system, where people can see how much tax they are paying and related directly to how much they can afford. We know the unfair Council Tax slams the poor hardest and yet successive Tory and Labour Govs keep forcing it up. It is time to scrap the Council Tax, which Gordon Brown plans to hike by 10% over the next two years.