Employees who continue working from home after the pandemic should be taxed for the privilege, with the proceeds used to help lower-paid workers, according to a new report.
Economists at Deutsche Bank have proposed making staff pay a 5% tax for each day they choose to work remotely.
They argue it would leave the average employee no worse off because of savings made by not commuting and not buying lunch on-the-go and fewer purchases of work clothing.
God forbid anyone saves any money when they could be forking it over to people who - unlike them - know just how to best use it. eh?
Alternatively, the report suggests the tax could be paid by employers who do not provide their workforce with a permanent desk.
Cue all sorts of shenanigans to try to prove that this desk is really Karen's even when she's not sitting in it...
Coronavirus has “turbocharged” the popularity of remote working, which was growing rapidly before the pandemic, according to Deutsche Bank strategist Luke Templeman. “For years we have needed a tax on remote workers – Covid has just made it obvious,” Templeman said.
I looked up the definition of 'need' and I agree with Colossus...
“A big chunk of people have disconnected themselves from the face-to-face world yet are still leading a full economic life. That means remote workers are contributing less to the infrastructure of the economy whilst still receiving its benefits. That is a big problem for the economy.”
I don't know about you, Luke, but I work to live. I don't live to work.
8 comments:
Effing krauts can F right off
Sadly many governments are scratching around for a new source of tax revenue - but there's no desire to shrink government to reduce the revenue requirement.
My counterintuitive proposal is that all taxes are scrapped except VAT which is increased to cover the scrapped taxes. This might have to be brought in in stages as it could affect how businesses structure their activities and ordinary people modify their purchases.
The point of this proposal is not its simplicity but its direct accountability to the electorate. The VAT rate might be, say, 50% but no NI or income tax or fuel duty is payable. Any extra revenue demand would show up as an increase in the tax rate. No stealth taxes, simple tax code, everybody realises that there is no magic 'Government money' to call upon.
Rather than reducing taxes, I can see local authorities raising council tax for those working from home on the grounds that their residences are part commercial premises. Have been told that several councils, as well as the benevolent Samaritans of HMRC are looking at this, though hopefully fake news. If true, full of Christmas cheer these parasites.
Penseivat
Yes! What we need is economic advice from within an organisation which, at the last report, was on the point of collapse . . .
Mind you, it parallels the EUSSR so we shouldn't be surprised.
This has to be simple jealousy of folk who are not stuck in the office. I can think of no other reason
To work from home, you need the infrastructure. This consists of telephony and an internet service. You need space, a desk, probably some fort of filing system, a comfortable chair, computer, monitors and software, space away from domestic distractions, possibly a printer and scanner, camera, webcam and so on. Many employers imposing WFH do not supply these things. Provided they are tax deductible - as they should be - and not via some stupid capital depreciation scam, then it is likely that the individual would even pay less tax. What is the equivalent rental value of a room in a (say) 8 room house for offsetting tax?
It would be pernicious to tax people who have to comply with a government diktat, but that is what governments do. But it would pay at the next election.
Let's face it, Deutsch Bank is run for Germans, who right royally fucked up Europe through the 20th Century. Their ideas should be dismissed as useless, national socialist claptrap.
Can anyone provide an argument against my proposal to turn all "bank strategists" into Mississippi wind chimes?
"...but there's no desire to shrink government to reduce the revenue requirement."
Given how badly government has performed, less of it could surely only be an improvement?
"Have been told that several councils, as well as the benevolent Samaritans of HMRC are looking at this, though hopefully fake news."
Oh, I don't doubt it!
"This has to be simple jealousy of folk who are not stuck in the office. I can think of no other reason"
Quite!
"But it would pay at the next election."
Would it, though? Is there any alternative party to vote for instead?
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