UK Sugar Tax to be imposed by 2020 on all NHS Hospitals

Seriously quite unbelievable....imposing a sugar tax supposedly to combat obesity? What next? Back to the window tax? Taxing the air we breathe? The UK currently has more taxation laws than possibly any other country which include the following:-
Accounts Receivable Tax
Airline surcharge tax
Airline Fuel Tax
Airport Maintenance Tax
Alcohol tax
Building Permit Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Goods and Services Tax (GST)
Death Tax
Driving Permit Tax
Environmental Tax (Fee)
Excise Taxes
Income Tax
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Petrol Tax (too much per litre)
Gross Receipts Tax
Health Tax
Heating Tax
Inheritance Tax
Interest Tax
Lighting Tax
Liquor Tax
Luxury Taxes
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Mortgage Tax
Pension Tax
Personal Income Tax
Property Tax
Poverty Tax
Prescription Drug Tax
Real Estate Tax
Recreational Vehicle Tax
Retail Sales Tax
Service Charge Tax
School Tax
Telephone Tax
Value Added Tax
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Water Tax
Workers Compensation Tax
Tax (VAT) on Tax.
Carbon Tax
now Sugar Tax

This new tax is only going to be imposed in NHS facilities to "improve the health of NHS staff patients & visitors" they say on drinks sweets & sugary snacks....for now. How long until they decide to tax ALL sugar generally? Nice little earner once again imposing their will on the poorest and on the sick. Whatever happened to choice? Sugar doesn't cause obesity, eating too much and not exercising does, as does poverty. When someone is hungry they eat cheap processed food or fill up on cakes and other such foods which taste nice and are filling. More taxation is NOT going to prevent obesity. In hospitals people will just bring the stuff in with them. Many hospitals now have Costa Coffee franchises or Sweet Shops inside the hospitals, instead of taxing sugar wouldn't it be better to simply improve patient and staff food to a decent level instead of the prison style mush they currently serve up then people wouldn't need to get food from snack bars or relatives?

I'm sorry but who the hell are they to tell me what I can and can't eat?
If they feel sugar is the root of all weight/obesity problems just take the vending machines and cafes out of the Hospitals...but they won't....because it will earn them a nice little lump sum every year and I have little doubt that once this is shown not to make a blind bit of difference, more taxes will follow on various foodstuffs....despite promises that food would never be taxed

BBC News

Wait until they figure out how to tax your thoughts.

if they could find a way of taxing our farts per cubic meter they would.

a reply to: PhyllidaDavenport

Let me guess...the tax won't apply to sodas or tea/coffee laced with aspartame. I'm not familiar with regulation of dangerous chemicals in the UK - is it legal to poison people with there as it is in the US? I'm not sure whether any of the proposed "sugary beverage" ludicrous taxes were ever passed anywhere in the US, but I know they've talked about doing so - while using the far more effective obesity and diabetes-causing aspartame-laced beverages alone. Absolutely bizarre.

What's next indeed? Tax on apples because they're sweet and contain sugar, but not on "diet" jelly beans, because they only contain chemical sweeteners, chemical flavorings, and chemical colorings - all created in an approved laboratory environment, as opposed to the dangerous crucible of death known as "natural substances."

a reply to: Soloprotocol

Well that's me off the organic diet then if they do

But seriously what else can they think of to tax? And just how is this ludicrous tax going to prevent obesity? Surely as I said above it would be far better to improve the terrible hospital food first before thinkingn about taxing visitors to the snack cart

a reply to: dogstar23

Let me guess...the tax won't apply to sodas or tea/coffee laced with aspartame.

Yes the sugar tax probably wont apply to drinks without sugar.

a reply to: dogstar23

Nope just actual sugar...posioning us with aspartame is apparently fine as long as we're not fat

originally posted by: PhyllidaDavenport
The UK currently has more taxation laws than possibly any other country which include the following:-
Goods and Services Tax (GST)
Driving Permit Tax
Environmental Tax (Fee)
Heating Tax
Lighting Tax
Liquor Tax
Luxury Taxes
Medicare Tax
Mortgage Tax
Prescription Drug Tax
Real Estate Tax
Recreational Vehicle Tax
Retail Sales Tax
Service Charge Tax
School Tax
Telephone Tax
Water Tax
Workers Compensation Tax

As a UK resident of over 50 years, I didn't realise we had these taxes. A Google search didn't reveal much, either. I guess they must be pretty secret. You learn something new every day, eh?

a reply to: lacrimoniousfinale

Many of our taxes are the so called stealth taxes i.e. you don't get to know about them until they hit you with them! My own bug bear tax is inheritance tax and death duty....totally hate it, taxed for living taxed again for dying

Here's a little ditty doing the rounds on social media at the moment which I think just about sums it up
Tax his land,
Tax his bed,
Tax the table
At which he's fed.

Tax his work,
Tax his pay,
He works for peanuts
Anyway!

Tax his cow,
Tax his goat,
Tax his pants,
Tax his coat.

Tax his tobacco,
Tax his drink,
Tax him if he
Tries to think.

Tax his car,
Tax his gas,
Find other ways
To tax his ass.

Tax all he has
Then let him know
That you won't be done
Till he has no dough.

When he screams and hollers;
Then tax him some more,
Tax him till
He's good and sore.

Then tax his coffin,
Tax his grave,
Tax the sod in
Which he's laid.

When he's gone,
Do not relax,
It's time to apply
The inheritance tax.

They should tax body fat.

That would be funny

a reply to: PhyllidaDavenport

The danger of such taxes is in their reasoning.

If they raise the tax to combat sugar use, then people actually may stop using sugar. If that is the case, then they'll have to tax something else because of the loss in taxes from sugar.

# the nanny state.



How about a pedophile tax! That will be most of the house of lords and half of the commons bankrupt!

Will the sugar tax apply to drinks containing hfc?
Usually these things have a loophole or two that's potentially more harmful than the original.

originally posted by: lacrimoniousfinale

originally posted by: PhyllidaDavenport
The UK currently has more taxation laws than possibly any other country which include the following:-
Goods and Services Tax (GST)
Driving Permit Tax
Environmental Tax (Fee)
Heating Tax
Lighting Tax
Liquor Tax
Luxury Taxes
Medicare Tax
Mortgage Tax
Prescription Drug Tax
Real Estate Tax
Recreational Vehicle Tax
Retail Sales Tax
Service Charge Tax
School Tax
Telephone Tax
Water Tax
Workers Compensation Tax

As a UK resident of over 50 years, I didn't realise we had these taxes. A Google search didn't reveal much, either. I guess they must be pretty secret. You learn something new every day, eh?

I'm also wondering why we have to pay a Medicare Tax when Medicare is a US institution.

That list is cut and paste from somewhere, but it's not a list of UK taxes. I bet that's not going to stop people going off on one, though. It never has in the past.

a reply to: PhyllidaDavenport

If referring to UK taxes it might be a good idea to actually use a list of UK taxes. Just a suggestion.

originally posted by: lacrimoniousfinale

originally posted by: PhyllidaDavenport
The UK currently has more taxation laws than possibly any other country which include the following:-
Goods and Services Tax (GST)
Driving Permit Tax
Environmental Tax (Fee)
Heating Tax
Lighting Tax
Liquor Tax
Luxury Taxes
Medicare Tax
Mortgage Tax
Prescription Drug Tax
Real Estate Tax
Recreational Vehicle Tax
Retail Sales Tax
Service Charge Tax
School Tax
Telephone Tax
Water Tax
Workers Compensation Tax

As a UK resident of over 50 years, I didn't realise we had these taxes. A Google search didn't reveal much, either. I guess they must be pretty secret. You learn something new every day, eh?

I think some of them are so secret even the inland revenue don't know about them....

originally posted by: EvillerBob

originally posted by: lacrimoniousfinale

originally posted by: PhyllidaDavenport
The UK currently has more taxation laws than possibly any other country which include the following:-
Goods and Services Tax (GST)
Driving Permit Tax
Environmental Tax (Fee)
Heating Tax
Lighting Tax
Liquor Tax
Luxury Taxes
Medicare Tax
Mortgage Tax
Prescription Drug Tax
Real Estate Tax
Recreational Vehicle Tax
Retail Sales Tax
Service Charge Tax
School Tax
Telephone Tax
Water Tax
Workers Compensation Tax

As a UK resident of over 50 years, I didn't realise we had these taxes. A Google search didn't reveal much, either. I guess they must be pretty secret. You learn something new every day, eh?

I'm also wondering why we have to pay a Medicare Tax when Medicare is a US institution.

That list is cut and paste from somewhere, but it's not a list of UK taxes. I bet that's not going to stop people going off on one, though. It never has in the past.

Darn yanks expecting us to pay their taxes. No taxation without representation I say, lets go throw a pile of tea in a harbour to make the point.

Now my advice for those who die, declare the pennies on your eyes.

Cos I'm the Taxman, oh yeah I'm the Taxman

And you're working for no one but me!!

The medical profession have been calling for a sugar tax for a while now, in order to fight obesity. So far the Government have resisted introducing it, so this looks like a testing ground.

a reply to: PhyllidaDavenport

So they impose a tax on something most people don't even know the recommended daily value. The nutrition facts on every food product lists every other daily value from fat to sodium but sugar somehow gets a pass.
Now they tax people on it!

The World Health Organization is dropping its sugar intake recommendations from 10 percent of your daily calorie intake to 5 percent. For an adult of a normal body mass index (BMI), that works out to about 6 teaspoons -- or 25 grams -- of sugar per day

ETA: I see the UK labels do list sugar percentage. But the daily value is 90 grams?!?! I must be reading that wrong.

The Queen needs her allowance. The entertainment value of the "Royals" is worth another tax or two. Of course, you might take inspiration from the party in Boston a while back. Dress up and throw sacks of sugar into the Thames. Tell them it is sugar for the tea that a previous monarch taxed.