Byron Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Osborne must be biting the carpet. After years and years of anti smoking rhetoric, it has suddenly come up to bite the Government on the backside. There are estimated to be about 1 million vapers in the UK now. If each used to spend only £5 per day on cigarettes, and most of it was taxation, then that's £5 million daily haemorrhaging from the treasury income. Schadenfreude!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THE BALD MAN Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Osborne must be biting the carpet. After years and years of anti smoking rhetoric, it has suddenly come up to bite the Government on the backside. There are estimated to be about 1 million vapers in the UK now. If each used to spend only £5 per day on cigarettes, and most of it was taxation, then that's £5 million daily haemorrhaging from the treasury income. Schadenfreude!!! Worth very penny as people's lives are saved and health improved Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperChimp Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 If each used to spend only £5 per day on cigarettes, and most of it was taxation, then that's £5 million daily haemorrhaging from the treasury income. Money not spent on cigarettes is still being spent in the wider economy and VAT is still paid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monkey Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 I gave up smoke 2years ago. I smoked for 16 years. For the last 2/3 years of smoking, i was importing them from Australia, buying 200 at a time costing me £4 per pack delivered to my door. To buy the same in the uk was £6ish a pack. A few friends did the same and still are when i showed them how easy it was. I bet there are 1000's of other people doing the same, and thats even more money lost. Most people who smoke dont really care about the health problems later in life, so showing them bad lungs etc wont stop most. Nor will putting the price up, all it will do is force people to find other ways of feeding their addiction, to the point of buying from questionable sources with questionable quality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goat Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 For the last 2/3 years of smoking, i was importing them from Australia, buying 200 at a time costing me £4 per pack delivered to my door. To buy the same in the uk was £6ish a pack. A few friends did the same and still are when i showed them how easy it was. I bet there are 1000's of other people doing the same, and thats even more money lost. Rough guess, I'd say something like 50% of the hand rolling tobacco smoked in this country comes in from Holland. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPin Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Rough guess, I'd say something like 50% of the hand rolling tobacco smoked in this country comes in from Holland. The other half is from Belgium. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPin Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Worth very penny as people's lives are saved and health improved People can spend the saved fag money on crystal meth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longtomsilver2 Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Worth very penny as people's lives are saved and health improved Might be why they are putting up the state pension age. Not that we are all living longer but more people would reach the current state pension age and this effectively closes the door on them too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swissy_fit Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 If we taxed obesity, the NHS could pay for itself. What an excellent if slightly controversial idea. Any body fat percentage greater than 25% to attract a higher tax code, getting progressively higher as the percentage increases. Those on benefits with >25% body fat to receive vouchers instead of money which can only be spent on healthy food. Mwahahahahahaha............. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Byron Posted January 26, 2014 Author Share Posted January 26, 2014 What an excellent if slightly controversial idea. Any body fat percentage greater than 25% to attract a higher tax code, getting progressively higher as the percentage increases. Those on benefits with >25% body fat to receive vouchers instead of money which can only be spent on healthy food. Mwahahahahahaha............. But this no more illogical than the huge amount of tobacco tax, and the moral imperative is the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rave Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 But this no more illogical than the huge amount of tobacco tax, and the moral imperative is the same. I'm 34. I should never have been a smoker but got into it in my hardcore pubbing days in my early 20s. I buy the odd pack of full tax straights but it's 95% rollups for me- and I have almost never bought rolling baccy at UK ludicrous prices. For 10 years or more all bought in Belgium. To this day it's 1/3 the UK price, I like my wine as well, so the exchequer has had sod all out of my vices. P&O Ferries have done very well! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPin Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 I'm 34. I should never have been a smoker but got into it in my hardcore pubbing days in my early 20s. I buy the odd pack of full tax straights but it's 95% rollups for me- and I have almost never bought rolling baccy at UK ludicrous prices. For 10 years or more all bought in Belgium. To this day it's 1/3 the UK price, I like my wine as well, so the exchequer has had sod all out of my vices. P&O Ferries have done very well! I never get those business trips to the continent any more, but when I did, I always came back with the car stuffed with fags and booze. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neverwhere Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 But this no more illogical than the huge amount of tobacco tax, and the moral imperative is the same. Although to be truly comparable it would have to be a massive tax on food and drink known to excessively contribute to the rise in obesity, rather than a direct tax on fat people (how would they do that, would tax inspectors come round with bathroom scales?)Totally good idea though, they should do this. Current system is the same as everything else though: privatise the profits (food and drink revenue) and socialise the losses (NHS tackling obesity-related medical problems). It's culturally endemic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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