[wdmmg-discuss] UK tax and cuts

[Tim Hubbard]

To follow up on Lisa's email:

At 16:25 +0100 11/6/10, Lisa Evans wrote:
>We have an exciting new project!
>
>With the emergency budget consultation, we are planning a simple 
>interactive tool that will show the consequences of tax increases 
>and cuts.
>
>The idea, and all of the work so far, is from Dr Tim Hubbard.
>Would other people like to join this little research team to get 
>this up and running in time?

To give an idea of what has been so far - I've been working on a 
spreadsheet modelling the different types of UK taxation, so that its 
possible to increase income tax or national insurance or capital 
gains and see how that effects individuals in different income bands 
and the total amount raised in a year.  Of course the figures are 
going to be rough, but already its possible to see how much its would 
be necessary to raise taxes to make a significant impact on the 
deficit for example.  Lisa is similarly modelling the effect of cuts. 
The idea is to build a website around this data where people can play 
around with the controls and try and balence the UK budget, making 
their choice between cuts and tax rises.

The aim is to start simple with a static model...it could be made 
progressively more realistic over time (if it can be worked out how) 
with feedback loops, change over time etc.

One key issue is that if this is to influence the current political 
debate - and I think there's a real chance to do this, given OKFs 
profile with http://www.wheredoesmymoneygo.org/ and data.gov.uk - the 
site needs to be built really, really fast...

>We need:
>
>- suggestions for cuts
>- ways we can measure if the effects of the changes will be good 
>enough - advice on taxation
>- suggestions for a name for the project

...and a catchy name would be really good!

following on from wheredoesmymoneygo might be

www.howwouldicutthedeficit.org (hwictd)

although its a bit long

or something completely different and shorter

www.selfgov.org (domain is taken though)

ideas?


Best wishes,

Tim
-- 
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Dr Tim Hubbard                         email: th at sanger.ac.uk
Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute        Tel (direct): +44 1223 496886
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URL: http://www.sanger.ac.uk/research/faculty/thubbard/
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