death by dangerous cycling

Ah, but then they'd lose the tax taken on top of other money that has already been taxed. To over-simplify it, of course.

They do that up here - a 6 week session in primary 6 or 7 all the kids are taken off site to a training centre (college carpark) given bikes and helmets and taught to ride sensibly, unfortunately there is no on road training for "safety reasons" They are not allowed to use their own bikes as that would involve checking they were ok first.

I think Gibbleking(or someone else) does this down south somewhere too.

?

My idea was for them to claw all their tax from one direct source. Which is why I said:-

Right, but I don't see what you're offering by way of comparison. A tax direct from our wages which covers all? So what would happen to VAT for example?

I think neil is suggesting we have no other tax than income tax but our PAYE would be around 60% for this to work. Hence the riots that would follow

Ah right. So we would still be paying tax on goods from taxed wages.

It wasn't a 100% serious suggestion, more in the way of countering the concept of hypothecated taxes, and / or indirect taxation.

As I said, previously, ignoring local / council tax, taxation from all the other sources / forms isn't hypothecated. It's collected, piecemeal because of tradition, evolving, um, need, and stealth.

My suggestion of replacing all of that with one direct, taxation, unquestionably fairer, probably simpler to understand, and probably with some streamlining and cost savings - was somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but I'm coming around to the view of it being a better solution.

Well right up to the point that the masses truly recognise how much of their income is clawed back as tax.

VAT is just another means of indirect taxation - and could be factored in - just like any other indirect taxation - to either corporation tax, or personal taxation.

Indeed - that and corporation / business tax.

As you point out, though, once that is overt and direct, I very much suspect many more people would be outraged at how much of their money goes to tax.

It's rather more difficult for that to be easily recognised when so much is taken indirectly or by stealth.

flat rate tax work perfectly well in other european countries, though mostly the in the newer eastern republics (estonia, latvia etc) but they seem to like it. poss thats because the wealth gap is a bit narrower having been commies a few years ago.
it gets talked about every now and again but loopholes always exist, i know plenty of people personally who should be paying 50% but only pay 20-25. if you want to use tax as an economic tool it needs to be flexible and variable, so you would likely end up with poorer people (for who fiddling taxes isnt economically viable) paying more than richer ones percentage wise.
check it out here, but dont believe everything you read
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_tax

more on topic, we had cycling proficiancy at middle school when i was a nipper, but id been riding for a few years before that.
i had a little yellow shopping bike when i was 3 or 4, and wierd thing is when i remember riding it, it feels like a full size bike lol