New Polish government to introduce Flat {-ulence} tax


From BBC website

I'm totally in favour of Poland's election victors, Civic Platform(PO), proposal to introduce a flat tax proposal of 15%. It will be of great benefit to everybody's health and the world's environment at large. For a long time now I have been telling friends, without much effect I should say, about the harm cows are doing to the environment with their pugnant methane. We humans are fairly innocent compared to the globally warming stench they omit on a daily basis. Seriously, let's look at the science.

The New Zealanders tried to bring in the flat(ulence) tax as a part of the Kyoto protocol. Needless to say it outraged farmers. The latter just wouldn't listen to the point that 50% of greenhouse gas emissions come from their cows' asses - well, actually the cow scientist specialists would say the authorities there misled the public somewhat. In a sense PO are guilty of the same flaw, with their catchy populist 'flat tax' propaganda.

The fact of the matter, from a scientific perspective, is that the majority of the methane is a result of burping, not farting! The bacteria in the rumen (1st stomach) is the main agent of ice sheet melting in this case.

So I would say to Civic Platform (PO) leaders, stop misguiding the Polish public. We are bright enough to face up to reality and make the necessary changes.

Just be honest and call it the 'Burping tax' - we're all right behind ye on this one!

Comments

varus said…
Seriously though, i am all in favour of a flat tax as i have never really (here and in the UK) understood the logic behind tax brackets. On a flat xat you pay more if you earn more, as you have a bigger total revenure to calculate the tax on, there fore wants the point of doublely punishing people by increaseing the tax when you are over a certain level. This seems to be a case of double jepody and dissuades people from earning more and thus destimulates the economy.

(p.s. not sure if i'm right as i'm only an arm chair economist)
Anonymous said…
because rich people should pay more tax as they have more money to spare.
varus said…
uden,
but the will naturally pay more tax as for example 15% of 3000 per month is 450, where as 15% of 5000 per month is 750. Therefore on a flat tax a person earning 5grand a month would pay 750 Zł tax which is a lot more than someone on only 3G. Why do you need to then tax them again?
Damien Moran said…
because they are rich and we should eat them (joke).

It depends on whether you believe fiscal policy should be 'the war of each against all' as some Social Darwinists (Huxley and laissez-faire advocates) espoused or on the other hand if you believe that Kropotkin's mutual aid interpretation of Darwinism supported by his own observations of animal and human behaviour are better exemplary foundations to envision the management of society.

In Ireland you have a tax band system with tax-free allowance of about €8/9,000, then up to €32,000 you pay 20% and above this you pay 41% on the balance.

At the end of earning your gross €80,000 you pocket net €54,483.96 - out of this you pay pay related social insurance (prsi) as well as Private Health Insurance. You can lead a fairly comfortable life despite the government taking a good bit of your money.

Problem is gvt.'s squander a lot of funds and therefore the have-nots do not receive the services they should with the colossal input of revenue from income taxes, VAT, excise duties, etc.

The logic is that as a society we have greater responsiblities when we earn more, have a higher level of education, earn more not because we work more but mainly because we have 50 people working for us - we gain from the profits of their labour cause we had a better education, etc. Of course, some people work their asses off to gain capital and own their own business, but this doesn't give them any right to have 10 times more than their needs.

The real problem is not really with I.T. project managers who earn €100,000 annually but more with the
minority that own the majority - e.g. the World Institute for Development Economics Research at United Nations University in 2000 reported the richest 1% of adults alone owned 40% of global assets in that year - now that is truly expolitation.
varus said…
I still stand by mty comment: why do you need to tax them again? I agree that money is wasted and aslo that people earning more invariably do'nt work harder, however to penilise them is creating the wrong environment. They will spend this money anyway and the state gets the money back from VAT. However, with VAT you are taxing after sales and so the money has been used to buy products and thus create jobs and aide economic development. Where as if it went directly to the tax man it would not stimulate growth and as Damien corerectly stated would probably be wasted. Polis Vat is quite high anyway and so the government alrady gets a vair wack of our money as it is.
Anonymous said…
You are wrong because VAT is always goign to cause more problems for the poor than for the rich.
Damien as regards your comment about the 1% in the world this is true. In Poalnd many people made large amounts of money, at time semi-legally, during the first year after the fall of communism - as a result of Balsarovicz's use of 'shock economics'. The result of this has been the creation of a political and economic elite and I think the only sensible thing would be to make these people pay a 'windfall tax'
varus said…
And what productive thing would the government do with this 'windfall tax'? Waste it most probably. It would be better to encourage these super rich to invest it back in the country and thus boost the economy and help produce more jobs.
Anonymous said…
It's too easy (read: dangerously populist) to say governments/states waste tax. Is lighting streets and treating sewage a waste of money?

At school I learned that VAT was a luxury tax, levied on caviare, truffles and the like, and therefore hitting the rich rather than the poor. That seems to have gone out the window since then, unless newspapers, building materials and the like are now to be considered luxuries.
Damien Moran said…
'And what productive thing would the government do with this 'windfall tax?'

Buy a few more F-16's; drive truckloads of money in front of hospitals in the line of vision of underpaid doctors; buy a new gvt. jet for Donald so he can do a tour of the world - the list is endless!!!

I don't trust any government, not even with the steam of my cat's piss. Governments may be more or less benign than their predecessors, but they remain a self-interested pack of wolves (no offence intended to our wolf friends).
Anonymous said…
I have less faith in Capitalists than in Governments.
Damien Moran said…
Corpocracies really boil my piss!
Anonymous said…
Nice to meet you!!!
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