Tim Worstall

3 responses so far ↓

• 1 Runcie Balspune // Dec 27, 2012 at 2:49 pm

  In cases like pensions where interest on savings is compounded, having a tax on the interest is like multiple taxation if it is applied year on year, surely it makes better sense to tax it on withdrawal.

• 2 Surreptitious Evil // Dec 27, 2012 at 11:32 pm

  surely it makes better sense to tax it on withdrawal

  Err, yes? They do that. They also do the other (for some pension investment categories and, or or, some values of pension savings.)

• 3 Monty // Dec 28, 2012 at 3:10 am

  The state is, supposedly, coming to terms with the new state of affairs concerning our life expectancy. Good. So are we.
  We work for 40-45 years, and our retirement is likely to be no less than a further 15 years, and maybe 30 years. They want us to save as much as we can in pension funds or savings accounts to minimise our demands on the state during that period, so they don’t need to spend money on us. That is what most of us are trying to do.
  But the state wants the same money from us twice. They want to take it from us now, in tax. The Chancellor wants to spend it while he is still in office. But he wants us to retain that same money to support ourselves in our declining years, so he can present a rosy forecast of our national situation.
  Someone, not a million miles from the Treasury, is a dishonest, immoral, unprincipled git….

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