tobbaco tax

[oscartony]

why do we pay such extortionate taxes when we would be paying less if we were in line with EU, also giving customs more resources to concentrate on real crime?

[Loosehead]

You would not be paying less in the EU, you'd be paying it in a different way. The EU is more focused toward direct taxation so Income tax etc is more but tax on things like alcohol and tobacco is less. The UK is the other way around.

[oscartony]

are you loose in the head too?

we pay on average 2.5% more here

[WoWo]

Customs officals stop people flooding the market with goods that would otherwise be charged with duty. Getting rid of them would mean that the tax man would get less money because nobody would buy booze and fags the legal way and therefore income tax would go up.

This is what loosehead was saying. In effect the government have a big pot of cash which is made up of income tax, duty, vat etc. This pot needs to be say �100, remove the �20 they get from fag money would mean that something else would go up to compensate.

[spacechimp]

Besides, high taxes on cigarettes mean less people buy them, which is a good thing. I personally like being able to breathe when I'm walking along the street.

[Loosehead]

Ok you're new, have that one on me.

[spacechimp]

:s?