Growls

Fortunately, for now at least, it’s only a proposal in the United Kingdom. CNBC reported yesterday that “UK's tax collection agency is putting forth a proposal that all employers send employee paychecks to the government, after which the government would deduct what it deems as the appropriate tax and pay the employees by bank transfer.” Robin Knight of CNBC writes further:

“The proposal by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) stresses the need for employers to provide real-time information to the government so that it can monitor all payments and make a better assessment of whether the correct tax is being paid.

“Currently employers withhold tax and pay the government, providing information at the end of the year, a system know as Pay as You Earn (PAYE). There is no option for those employees to refuse withholding and individually file a tax return at the end of the year.

“If the real-time information plan works, it further proposes that employers hand over employee salaries to the government first.

"The next step could be to use (real-time) information as the basis for centralizing the calculation and deduction of tax," HMRC said in a July discussion paper.”

In talking about this news item on his talk show yesterday, Rush Limbaugh said:

“I don't know whether it's going to happen, but, remember, these are leftists. When they propose something, they never let go of it. If they lose they'll just bide their time and keep working at it . . . They'll not take too much out of your paycheck. They'll never fail to refund you or pay you the proper amount. And in the case of a dispute, how long is it gonna take to resolve one of these, and how many times would the taxpayer actually win? But this is leftists. All money, all property is theirs, until they decide what (and) who ends up with, whoever, and how much.”

Heh, it’s just government trying to make your life easier. Oh, you want liberty, too?