Should all tax returns be available online? Most people’s knee-jerk reaction is that it would be absolutely horrifying for everyone to see what you earn. It’s an entirely private matter between you, your employer and the taxman. It would be a gross intrusion of privacy if it was made available to the public – and worse, to the newspapers.
And that, precisely is it. My financial affairs are no one else’s business and I will keep them that way. Just because Cameron and other Pollies have been pressured into revealing theirs, it does not follow that the rest of us should. And I fucking won’t. Ever. Under any circumstances. So just go fuck yourself with the wrong end of a pineapple wrapped in razor wire.
Norwegians say they are intensely relaxed about the figures being made public.
I’m not Norwegian and this isn’t Norway. Go fuck yourself.
They see it as a core part of citizenship and a way of showing you are contributing.
Fuck citizenship and fuck contributing. It is legalised extortion, nothing more. Go fuck yourself.
Trade unions largely support the idea; in private companies with unpublished pay scales, individual pay can be hugely unfair and discriminatory.
Ah, yes, heaven forfend that we should have companies reaching individual agreements with employees and paying them on merit. Collective bargaining is why unions exist, after all. Fuck them, too.
In Norway there is a media feast every year in October when the returns are released.
And that’s a good reason not to do it.
In calling for salary and tax transparency, inevitably some readers will say: “Why don’t you just publish yours, then?” And yes, I will – when we have a situation where you can see mine and I can see yours.
I have no interest in seeing yours, and you have no reason to see mine, so fuck off.
“Each citizen has a personal interest, a pecuniary interest in the tax return of his neighbor. We are members of a great partnership, and it is the right of each to know what every other member is contributing to the partnership and what he is taking from it.”
This is what socialism is about.
Those were the words of US president Benjamin Harrison in a speech in 1898. They still hold true today.
No, it doesn’t. It was vile then, it is vile now. My financial affairs are private, they are no business of anyone and I intend to do everything to keep it that way.
Depressingly and predictably – this being the Guardian – the commenters below the line are all in favour of a people’s Stasi poking about in their neighbours’ financial affairs. Evil fuckers.
Strikes me the folks in Norway must live in an abnormally safe environment. They must, they really must. Safe, trusting and naive.
Here of course the size of your income is a very big issue in things like theft, kidnapping, ransom and abduction.
And it’s all relative, the people who advocate making tax returns public are in all likelihood the ones who don’t have to file one, or whose income is so low they believe they’re of no interest to the naughty people. Or the plain pig ignorant.
I couldn’t care less what the person who lives next door to me, or anyone in my street earns. Public servants and of course those working for fake charities, well that’s another matter entirely.
Knowing their gross income will be most helpful when comparing with those in the productive sector.
What is it with this collective idiocy, are they putting something in the water or is there some subliminal brainwashing coming through the television..i knew there was another reason, other than its fucking drivel or propaganda, why me and her don’t watch the bloody thing.
Bad as mad merkel, because she was stupid enough (or still doing the stasi’s work?) to invite half the worlds ne’er do wells to walk into germany, she expects every other country to join in the current fashion of national suicide too.
Fuckin lunatics the lot of ’em.
Unfortunately, they’ve got half the electorates in each country joining in the lemming frenzy.
It’s not just in Norway, it certainly happens in Finland, so it’s probably the same in Sweden and Denmark. I read an account a few years ago of a guy in Finland who wanted to extend his house, a local (socialist) politician on the planning committee looked up the guy’s earnings and decided that he earns too much so his application should be rejected. He persuaded enough people and the permission was refused. If it was me I would have moved and payed my local taxes elsewhere. This is so typical of envious socialist thinking that it is a good reason for not publicising people’s earnings and for why socialists should be shunned.
I’ve seen similar approaches in other socialist-leaning countries, like Italy and France. It seems to be very much a socio-cultural preference rather than some universal view. There are certainly pros and cons to both approaches.
I’m also not sure how the UK’s approach to privacy squares with the tendency for its own media to constantly prattle on about how much celebrities and corporate CEOs get paid in various “Rich Lists”. If it’s none of anyone’s business for private citizens, why the hell should actors be an exception and not, say, producers and agents as well?
While I don’t think it should be a legal obligation to divulge one’s earnings to any passing stranger, I really don’t understand the big deal over keeping earnings private.
Offshore accounts aren’t illegal. Neither is reducing one’s exposure to tax. So why anyone sees tax avoidance as anything other than a perfectly normal approach to one’s own finances escapes me. Who the hell *voluntarily chooses* to pay more taxes than is legally required of them?
Yes, it’s easier for the wealthy to legally avoid paying lots of taxes, but it’s also perfectly legal. Don’t like the law? Change it. Some will argue that the “system” is broken and other such bollocks, but the people who do that tend to be the same sheep who insist on voting wolves into positions of power over them.
Bah!
“And yes, I will – when we have a situation where you can see mine and I can see yours.”
So he believes in this to the extent he won’t do it until he’s forced to.
A man of principle.
Just like his fellow travellers who call for higher tax rates, but ignore the helpful advice they can pay more anytime they want.
Imagine taking this outside of politics:
I love burger and fries, so much variety for such a simple dish. And the American’s seem to live on them.
But I’m not touching them unless you’re forced to eat them as well.
They’re too dim to even realize that the information could be used to drive down wages.
“I see Mr. X that last year you made the square root of fuck all so I’m going to offer you a third less to do the job than I would have done otherwise. Take it or leave it.”
Hilarious post. Sometimes I think you are becoming the Devil’s Kitchen. Keep up the good work 🙂
You will never get people in show business putting their tax returns on line in the fear that once the public see how much they get for singing a few songs or, in the case of Robbie Williams, watching him listening to the audience singing his songs, they will stop paying to watch them. Realising that Cuthbert Bandersnatch has raked it in for speaking someone else’s words, followed by a political rant about something he has no right to inflict on the paying public, may make people more likely to watch The Night Garden, to the detriment of his future income. After my last tax demand, which told me I owed HMRC a shed load of money (I suppose someone has to pay for the condoms to stop these people breeding), I did enquire, if I changed my name to Amazon Starbucks, would it make any difference to any future requests for money. I’m still waiting for a reply.
“…if I changed my name… money” ROFL
I asked them how I could get to pay only 3% – I’m still waiting for a reply too!