Quote:
Originally Posted by Sephiroth
It does provide the Guvmin with the opportunity to reduce income tax and move the difference to the hypothecated (I hope) levy.
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It won’t be hypothecated. That just doesn’t happen in our system; it would require some extremely convoluted legislation to achieve it, mostly due to the fact that the actual amount collected from any given tax can be quite variable from month to month and year to year, making definition difficult and, perversely, presenting risks to service delivery. The Treasury would squeal loudly about the extra red tape demanded by compliance and would warn loudly about the risks of hypothecating funds away that could only be released for other uses by Act of Parliament, even in an existential crisis.
The only effective guarantee of a tax being spent as promised in our system is parliamentary scrutiny and political debate.