TAX, TAX AND MORE TAX; WHY DON'T WE COMPLAIN ?

Is it any wonder that people try to avoid paying more tax than they must ?

We pay income tax at rates of up to 45%, and national insurance of up to 12%. We're then charged every time we spend any of what's left - 20% VAT on much of what we buy, 12% tax on insurance premiums, tax when we fly (air passenger duty), capital gains tax when we sell assets, inheritance tax when we die and stamp duty on a variety of things including buying a house. Then there's taxes, usually disingenuously called 'duties', on tobacco products, gambling, fuel, beer, wines and spirits, and which often have VAT charged on them too. There's the car tax that we pay on new vehicles which, itself, is subject to VAT - one third of the price of a new car is tax. With fuel duty and VAT, two thirds of the price of the fuel we put into our cars is tax. Let's not forget the 'road fund licence' that has nothing to do with roads or funds but is just yet another tax.

There is also the council tax and many others, some of which affect businesses initially but all of which are ultimately passed onto consumers through higher prices - corporation tax, landfill tax, customs duties, business rates, the climate change levy, petroleum revenue tax and heaven knows what else.

We are taxed to the hilt so that governments can continue to spend on ever-increasing regulation, pet projects and their own extravagancies. They throw our money around with gay abandon while failing to properly maintain our roads, railways and other infrastructure; our health service, frequently lauded as the best in the world, is a shambles with patients waiting months for appointments and then months more for the results of scans and other tests. Every aspect of our public services is a mess, chronically underfunded or beset with rules, regulations and political correctness to such an extent that they can barely function.

Why on earth do we put up with it ? I pay more than enough tax, one way or another, and I resent having perfectly legal avoidance conflated with illegal evasion. How dare our government try to make us feel guilty for avoiding paying any more than we must.