I prefer the relatively uncorruptable theory of taxation proposed some years ago.
No income tax, no VAT, no purchase tax, no council tax, etc. levied on any individual whatsoever.
Audit all the banks and make them take a percentage of every transaction passing through. This would permit the removal of the entire treasury, the inland revenue, the VAT recovery infrastructure, and several other tiers of government. Not to mention the returns and other tedious personal admin.
It would also require that every official transaction, (Input: ie payroll, interest, etc.), and every output: withdrawals, credit cards, cheques, transfers, etc would pass through the system and a flat rate of tax creamed off.
This would mean that the creative accounting and "avoidance" currently taking place would be largely irrelevant. Even if people tried to keep cash under the bed, sooner or later they would want to spend it and hey ho the circle is complete.
It was estimated that setting the rate at 3% of every banking transaction and the savings in bureaucracy would more than meet the needs of the country in terms of health, defense, education, etc.
Problem is what would we do with all the bean counters.
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