Toynbee - "tax returns of every citizen must be made public"

[excel monkey]

Polly Toynbee wants everyone's tax return to be made available for public scrutiny.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/apr/0...

Already a reality in some Scandi coutries. Good idea or bad? Would you want your colleagues and friends/enemies knowing how much you earn?

[excel monkey]

otolith said:

Only if benefit receipts are also made public.

This was mentioned in the comments on the Guardian article.

I agree with the comments above that this is extremely unlikely to happen in this country. I'm amazed the Swedes and Norwegians allow it, despite their famous egalitarianism.

Having said that, I think most of us already have a vague idea of what our friends and colleagues earn. Certainly in my industry (finance sector), if you know someone's job title and rough age, then you have a reasonable idea what salary they are on.

[excel monkey]

Gene Vincent said:

Taxman, fk him, if I could be paid cash and pay none except purchase taxes, I would, without doubt.

I'm sure a lot of people feel the same way, which is why HMRC have the powers they do.

[excel monkey]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Do the marketing agencies not already have a reasonable idea of how wealthy an individual is, based on postcode and credit card spending?

On the other hand, I imagine burglars only care about "stuff", not salary. They can figure that out by looking at what's on the driveway, and peering through the living room window to size up the plasma telly.

I think the biggest issue would be in the workplace, particularly in the service sector. Salaries and bonuses are a delicate subject, and firms go to huge lengths to keep them secret. Making them publicly available would cause a lot of fallout, and give high earners another reason to consider leaving the UK.

[excel monkey]

otolith said:

Because the British want to know where they stand in their imaginary hierarchy compared to their neighbours, and it's hard to know whether to look up to or down upon them if you don't know how they funded their acquisition of the trappings of material wealth.