On 2006-11-23 15:44:23 +0000, "Clive George" said:

wrote in message
oups.com...

If the govt wanted to raise money it ought to ask the people first,
presenting the reasons for it, and raise it from a tax on something bad
in some way. As it is, theyve taxed people making their houses safer,
causing unnecessary deaths. Why? You figure it out.

I don't get this argument. They haven't taxed people making their
houses safer. They may have introduced a scheme which helps prevent
people evading tax, but that is definitely not the same as introducing
a new tax.

I think Part P is crap for various reasons, but the 'tax' argument
you're presenting is completely bogus.

cheers,
clive

Actually it isn't. In terms of whether somebody in Westminster sat
down and specifically decided that introducing regulation around fixed
electrical installation as a means of tax take, probably not.

From letters that I have had from the minister of the time, via my MP,
it is pretty clear that the minister was not versed to any level of
detail at all about what was going on.

However..... this is one of a series of measures for the construction
industry whereby there is some form of self certification via members
of various trade associations. Since there is registration of work
done, in addition to membership of said trade organisations, it does
form a vehicle by which a proportion of construction industry
tradespeople are brought into a framework in which they can be tracked
for tax and other purposes.

I am sure that the industry will always have the cowboys and the tax
evaders; but in terms of the tax take, it will have certainly
contributed to the exchequer. There is certainly a political
motivation to do that.