Imagine that you are a Plumber.
Imagine that the Government is worried, ahead of predicted cold snap, that a lot of people’s pipes will be frozen with the consequent problems that will cause.
Or imagine that you are a Solicitor and the Government is worried that not enough adults are making a valid will and that they will be subject to the Laws of Intestacy on their death.
Or perhaps you are a manufacturer of baby buggies and the Government is concerned that the parenting skills of many mothers needs to be improved.
The Government decides that it wants to introduce a guidance service for your actual and prospective clients.
You might agree that such a guidance service might be for the public good but would you expect to pay for it by a levy against your profits?
I think you might be a bit peeved.
After all you probably have a marketing budget to try to encourage such people to come to you for advice for which they will be expected to pay either for a service or a product.
So when the Chancellor announced in the Budget this year that he wanted there to be a guidance guarantee for the many hundreds of thousands of people with money purchase pension plans, who reach retirement age each year we thought that was not a bad idea.
When he said he would make £20 million available to fund the development of such a service we were also impressed.
What we are less impressed by is how quickly that £20 million (and probably an awful lot more) became a levy on those financial services firms expected to benefit from this service for the public good.
Frankly if you are a Plumber, or a Solicitor or a Baby Buggy manufacturer then watch out!
The Chancellor may already be thinking of ways to spend your marketing budget and you may feel that this represents taxation without representation!
