Taxation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 4

Taxation - Essay Example is leaves the income tax and capital gains taxes as the two most important taxes to any household in UK, with huge implications on the consumption and investment patterns in the country. However, the taxation policy in the country does not observe neutrality in that it may discourage deferment of consumption and investment by taxing savings and returns on investments more into the future than now. The income tax is paid per any tax unit that is beyond the personal tax free allowance. The tax is charged from diverse types of savings and is charged at a basic rate of 25% or a higher rate of about 40% (OECD 2007, 13). On the other hand, capital tax operates much similar to the income tax above; there lacks a clear distinction between income and capital gains tax in UK. Any investor with a capital gain of  £5800 or below per annum is exempted from this tax. However, any income above this level is taxed based on the gains at marginal rate of the income tax. In U.K, today, any transaction on savings is treated differently under the taxation policy; the mode of taxing any savings is a vital feature of the UK tax base and leads to an understanding of the comprehensive income tax. In most cases, the comprehensive income tax refers to a case where the income from savings, the labour tax and any other elements that make up the tax base are taxed equally. On the other hand, in expenditure tax, the returns from taxes are not taxed until the individual uses the savings for consumption, at which the tax is known as an expenditure tax or consumption tax (Mirrlees, 283). The major difference between the two taxes is in the treatment of savings. Taxation of savings has an impact on the investment and consumption choices of individuals and companies in UK today. According to Mirrlees report, several effects were identified resulting from the taxation of savings. One, there is an attempt to design a carefully leveled taxation system that seeks to equalize the tax burden of the

Data Protection and Cyber-Security 2013 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Data Protection and Cyber-Security 2013 - Essay Example What has made this a possibility is the improvement in the communication technologies and mediums. The social media has been the best hit. Over the past, the social media has realized great developments which have made it easier to communicate and build a network of people from all over the world. Because of this, just as Bishop J. implies on increasing online communities, millions of people who were once not interested in social network development have now diverted to the same and joined the booming social platforms.1 These developments have seen emergence of many social media platforms and chat rooms that people are now free to join for a chance to connect with both known and unknown people from every location of the world, thanks to the internet. Social chat-rooms like twitter and Facebook are just but examples of the freely available social platforms. The development in the social media has come at a price that the society has dearly paid in the past years. The adoption of digit al communication done through the social platforms has, over the past, paved way for many instances of the violation of many UK laws that govern the privacy of information and human rights. There have been several instances where people have used the various social platforms to pass messages that either violates human rights or laws governing the country. Twitter, a prominent social media website, has been used by various people to relay criminal tweets which have affected the public by a great deal. The government has been trying to control the information passed through the social media. As outlined by Bishop, various laws and regulations have been made to prevent people from posting offensive messages that might have adverse effects on the public.2 Contrary to what should happen, people who post criminal and offensive messages on these social platforms have, in the past, made away with the offenses. For instance, law enforcers now say that offensive comments that are posted on tw itter and Facebook rarely lead to charges unless they also include eminent threats and/or even lead to harassment campaigns. This and many past events has seen the government unable to curtail the harms caused by various social media offensive messages hence clearly showing that the law is unclear and ineffective in addressing the social media offenses. This has come along with mixed reactions from people who are now left with question that tends to explain whether the social media is really effective in controlling the digital content. The numbers of offensive messages which are posted on twitter and Facebook among others have been on the rise lately. Estimates now show that millions of messages are sent within a single day. The most surprising part is that this is a statistic for only twitter with other social websites not considered. A large number of the messages which are sent daily are offensive and pose threats to the public. What has made this a significant threat is that th e messages, which are initially only meant for a particular person or group, may eventually end up reaching millions of people worldwide. According to the U.K director of public prosecutions (DPP) Keir Starmer QC., many people who post criminal messages online may go uncharged. This he says happens since the