Should a referendum on Scottish independence only include people living in Scotland?

[aspenarb]

3 hours ago, Johnsond said:

Not much enlightenment coming from the current crop of Scottish leaders in any way shape or form. If anything negativity fed in a steady drip. 

 

Someone must have bought the munter some new batteries for her calculator.

 

Bob

[Baldbloke]

 

 

So, Mrs Sturgeon now says that a new referendum needs to take place because of Westminster fundamentally changing Scotland’s position in Europe against the people’s will, when the first Scottish referendum would have automatically removed us had the result been to accept independence.

 

You couldn’t fucking make it up.

[adrian007]

The Unions in the UK seem quite useless. All talk and no action, but I think the members make the real difference in Norway. If Baker or Schlumberger are having their rights removed then Halliburton employee's will join them on Strike. Its very well organised and the Unions tell the Service Companies and Operators which Rigs they will take out of action. They will then try and mediate till the issue is resolved. Often it ends up as a Strike and we'll go on strike to get the rights of the competitor back, or improved. These guys are risking their jobs for guys who dont even work in the same company. Its really quite something. The Companies are banned from using other workers to cover the guys on Strike, from Norway or the UK (for example) The Union members will then patrol the Heli-ports making sure you're not going to that particular rig to fill the role of the position thats on Strike. Then the Rig has to shut down Drilling as they need these positions. This puts a lot of pressure on the Service Companies not only from the Union but from the likes of Shell as they are losing out big time. Its generally soon resolved. 
 
Yes, over time is great! I think Ive had close to 40 days OT this year. But we only get OT in our off periods, or if our trip goes past 14 days in our on-period. 
 
The State Pension in Norway is another great example of a country rewarding hard work. You pay into your own state pension pot. The more you earn the more you personally pay in. Its capped though, at something like 100,000nok a year. So I have at least 1,000,000nok in my personal State Pension. When I retire (62 or 67) I get that sum divided over the current life expectancy time period. So if the average is 82 years when you kick it, then whatever's in your own pot is divided over 20 years. In the UK regardless what you pay in tax you'll end up with the same pension as a SmackHead. And are the SNP planning on a State Pension like Norway? Of course not. [emoji3] 
 
Im on 46% tax. But like most people I overpay 12% that gets paid back in Junes salary. Its called Holiday pay as Holidays are not covered by the employer. But 12% back in June is a nice tax free (already paid) lump sum. All over time  and off-shore bonus is taxed 50%. Norway still allows you to claim back 25% on the interest paid on Mortgages. That really adds up, could be as much as £3000 back in the summer. 
 
I pay my NI here in Scotland as well. Just to keep my contributions ticking over and to use the NHS. Another 6 years and I'll have the 30 years needed for a full State Pension, whatever that will be by the time I actually retire. Bugger all I'll assume. 

35 NI contributions years gets you a full state pension at, I think £148 a week, at whatever your retirement age is now.

[Steve Bullman]

On 24/12/2019 at 20:52, Big J said:

I will add that my income is perfectly average, and I need to have an accountant anyway. I, for instance, have no means of legally avoiding corporation tax on my company's profits, so I pay 19% (falling to 18% starting April 2020). Companies such as Amazon use entirely legal loopholes to avoid this, so they (for example) paid only £14m in corporation tax on a turnover of just under £11 billion in the year ending 12/2018. I obviously understand that the UK needs the investment and employment that companies like Amazon bring, but given that Jeff Bezos is the world's richest man (despite his recent very costly divorce) he's in no morally justifiable position to withhold tax.

Explain how these amazon figures are relevant at all please 

[Big J]

51 minutes ago, Steve Bullman said:

Explain how these amazon figures are relevant at all please 

My point is that the corporations that play the largest part in our day to day lives and make the most profit pay proportionally the smallest amount of tax. Proportionally, they pay less than either of us, and I dare say a lot of folk here. It's about fairness. I'm not asking the larger corporations to pay more, only the same.

[Steve Bullman]

21 minutes ago, Big J said:

My point is that the corporations that play the largest part in our day to day lives and make the most profit pay proportionally the smallest amount of tax. Proportionally, they pay less than either of us, and I dare say a lot of folk here. It's about fairness. I'm not asking the larger corporations to pay more, only the same.

Those sort of figures are meaningless though and the sort of figures that are banded around by the media to shock the public and people with no knowledge of business. Anyone with even the smallest understanding of being self employed understands that turnover has no bearing on tax due 

[Big J]

4 minutes ago, Steve Bullman said:

Those sort of figures are meaningless though and the sort of figures that are banded around by the media to shock the public and people with no knowledge of business. Anyone with even the smallest understanding of being self employed understands that turnover has no bearing on tax due 

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£24.8 billion. That's over a quarter of the UK education budget.

 

edit: for some reason I can see the article, but it won't link properly. It refers to corporate tax underpayment.

Edited December 27, 2019 by Big J

[Steve Bullman]

Well I can’t read it either but it appears to have nothing to do with my post regarding turnover having nothing to do with tax 

[Big J]

3 minutes ago, Steve Bullman said:

Well I can’t read it either but it appears to have nothing to do with my post regarding turnover having nothing to do with tax 

My point was relating to the amount of tax being underpaid by large corporations trading in the UK. They use aggressive accountancy to reduce their declared profit, and then use further loopholes to reduce the tax they pay on their declared profit. 

 

Businesses on our level pay proportionally more tax than businesses like Amazon, regardless of whether you compare it to turnover or profit.

[trigger_andy]

11 minutes ago, Big J said:

They use aggressive accountancy to reduce their declared profit, and then use further loopholes to reduce the tax they pay on their declared profit. 

Is that any different than all the self employed folk on here, yourself included Id imagine? Or do you tell your accountant to not apply for certain things?