"The Conservatives have made a series of uncosted tax promises - tax bribes, " said Mr Clegg, referring to Tory promises to recognise marriage in the tax system, limit the National Insurance rise, freeze council tax and raise the inheritance tax threshold.
Unlike the second-tier Republican candidates, Messrs Forbes, Keyes and Bauer, who all favour some kind of radical shift towards a flat tax or national sales tax, the front-runners have few ideas for reforming the current tax system.
Once the virtues of the public health care option have been proven and accepted, the public system can be funded by a national sales tax to support public health care.
In fact, in her annual report to Congress last year, IRS National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson said lack of transparency in the tax system was among the most serious problems encountered by taxpayers.
The nation's ability to direct most of its college-trained women into the single career of teaching was the foundation upon which the national public school system was built and a major reason American tax rates were kept low.
It added that some of the reforms suggested in the review were already in the pipeline, such as simplification of the benefits system and integrating the operation of National Insurance and income tax.
Using national statistics and complicated formulas to calculate spending, the system will flag tax returns where the income clearly differs from the estimated consumption.
FORBES: Best Ways to Find Clandestine Restaurants and Hidden Ferraris
She needs the backing of state governments for contentious planned reforms: a national school curriculum, changes to the financing of the health system and a tax on mining profits.
The telegraph and the telephone, followed by the airplane and radio, empowered corporations to vault national boundaries, conduct their business globally--and shift their wealth to the least onerous tax system.
But famous examples of maladministration such as the troubled introduction of a new IT system for the National Health Service, chaos in the allocation of rural payments and tax credits, and ill-drafted private-finance initiatives seem to justify concern.
The most polluting vehicles would incur a higher "showroom tax" and hauliers face a national lorry road user charge under a "sustainable and fair" system.
应用推荐