Interesting Links for 17-05-2017

[andrewducker]

The original Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith ending had Padme founding the Rebel Alliance and almost killing Anakin (tags: StarWars ) Pirates pirate Pirates of the Caribbean 5 and demand ransom from Disney (tags: Disney piracy movies copyright ) Man creates single-person Tinder clone, is surprised when they take a legal interest (tags:

Comments

[gonzo21]

I think May's decision to hold a self serving general election instead of getting on with negotiating Brexit was the final straw with the Germans, the EU response seems to have been to throw their hands up in the air and say well fuck it, if the British are going to treat us with such contempt, then screw 'em.

Strong and stable leadership.

[a_pawson]

Most Germans I have spoken to have been baffled about why the UK left the EU. As they point out, we managed to get an opt out from all the bits people don't like, got a rebate on our membership contributions. received the benefits of the single market, and yet still voted to leave. However, these are mostly business people and so not a representative sample of the German people as a whole.

[gonzo21]

Basically the same bafflement as the rest of us here who voted remain then.

[skington]

Given how Theresa May's lot have continuously misunderstood how the EU and EU countries work, did they perhaps think that Marine Le Pen would win? (Rather than a centrist who took to the stage in his inaugural address to the sound of the Ode to Joy, and who has stuffed his cabinet with German-speakers?)

Land value tax

[skington]

As I understand it, one of the reasons why council tax is a bad idea (and indeed why the poll tax was originally brought in) is that it's both monetarily and politically to reevaluate house values. So you carry on taxing houses in Shoreditch as if it were still the slum it used to be, rather than the expensive place of up-and-coming thrusting hipsters it is now, because it costs money to send surveyors out to look at houses, and people who live there don't want their taxes to go up

Self-certifying

[woodpijn]

That's very interesting and cool-sounding from a game theory POV.

OTOH, if I were to honestly self-certify the value of my house to the best of my knowledge, I wouldn't want to risk being forced to sell it even in exchange for that amount of money (if I did want to sell for that price, my house would already be on the market). So I'd have to certify an artificially high value such that the excess would compensate for the inconvenience of being forced to sell, and that would make house prices inflate even faster than they already do.

[anna_wing]

The UK is, I think, quite unusual among developed countries in not having some form of explicit (real) property tax based on the value of the land. The value can be assessed in various ways. The one I am familiar with assesses the tax based on the rent - actual if it is rented out, or imputed, if it is vacant; this avoids awkward questions about the value of any buildings separate from the value of the land. It can also vary depending on whether the occupant is the owner or a tenant, thus allowing for adjustment to deal with second homes or investment properties.

[andrewducker]

Good point. If other countries can do it, then we certainly can.

[a_pawson]

I just can't see it ever happening in the UK. There will be a lot of resistance from some very wealthy landowners, who would be liable for a lot of tax under such and arrangement, and the one thing these people are good at is avoiding tax.