Question Author
Jake-the-peg - I've searched high and low for this information so thank you. However, any praise I have for you abruptly stops here.
You state that “... £1.6 Billion or about 15p per day for each tax payer”.
Oh really professor? Are you sure about that? (£0.15 x 62 million = £93 million)
Assuming we're using the technically inaccurate American billion which equals 1000 million, then 1.6 billion is 1600 million, or 1600,000,000. If the UK population is taken as being 62 million, or long-hand, 62,000,000 then the cost per person is calculated as follows:
£1600,000,000 divided by 62,000,000 = £25.81 per person.
NOT 15 pence per person. Did you think that no one would notice?
It's even worse than that because the most recent figure is £2 billion (not £1.6 billion – you're quoting the 2006/07 figure), making each and every one of us in the UK pay £32.26. And that's taking into account every single person that exists in the UK. But not everyone pays tax do they? Current estimates predict that approximately 32 million people pay tax in this country. Plug those figures into the equation and we get £62.50 for each tax payer in the UK.
But I'm sure you don't have a problem with this. Unlike the problem you clearly have with mathematics.