Midnight ponderings

System

Hi,
Definitley one for the off topic forum here....

I was being a bit insomniac last night and sat there pondering. I've been hoping to get a dog for some time and can't due to being out the house 8-6 at work. Dogs homes won't rehome without a letter from an already appointed dog walker saying the dog will be tended for in the day.

I got thinking last night about how good it'd be if my boss would let me bring a dog into work. It would solve the problem and save the unaffordable cost of a dogwalker (About £250 per month for a half hour walk each lunch :shock: ). So then I got to thinking that as it would be saving me alot of money if this completely implausible thing happened - would it be a taxble benefit? My employer would directly save me the 250 cost a month I would have other wise spent..... could be offered in lieu of payrise type of thoughts.....

Then I went on to thinking , on a similar trend, about loyalty cards. What about points gained on company purchased items. Air miles, Clubcard points (Petrol - or the sandwiches for lunches) or loyalty points on internet buys on the company card for example. Where do HMRC draw the line on you getting these side benefits that would otherwise be lost.

A bit of a tangent I know - I probably should drink less Coke in the evenings

System

Re:Midnight ponderings

I had a thought in a similar vein: You know how higher-polluting cars are targeted with higher taxes? This leads eventually to people making jokes about tax on the air we breathe.
Well, it occurred to me that it is actually possible to tax people based on the amount of carbon dioxide they produce.

The amount of carbon dioxide you produce is directly related to the amount of oxygen you use in generating energy (on a cellular level).
Your oxygen consumption is a funtion of the amount of energy you can extract from your food (and your level of activity)- this is its calorific value.
Therefore, if you tax food based on its calorific content you will, in effect, be taxing them in proportion with their carbon emissions!!

System

Re:Midnight ponderings

I tell you - use accounts lot think of some random stuff.

going with your thread then we'd be basically taxing the fatties? since more calories mean more fat. could solve the obesity problem and boost the NHS coffers.

mind you I do think there's a flaw in the theory. I don't think that gas is strictly related to quantity or calorie content of food. Cows and termites account for something stupid like half the worlds green house gases.... I can't see there's much calories in grass or whatever termites eat (wood?)

But I do think that I will now be spending my lasting awake moments tonight thinking of termites and cow farts!

System

Re:Midnight ponderings

mind you I do think there's a flaw in the theory. I don't think that gas is strictly related to quantity or calorie content of food. Cows and termites account for something stupid like half the worlds green house gases.... I can't see there's much calories in grass or whatever termites eat (wood?)

Ah, but if we're talking cow flatulence; that's methane gas. The calorie consumption thing would be for people exhaling carbon dioxide gas. They're both greenhouse gases, so I see your point.

Of course, if we wanted to target human methane consuption, we could levy a harsher tax on foods that cause flatulence. Baked beans, lentils, etc. Plus, things would smell better!

System

Re:Midnight ponderings

And not really wanting to shoot myself in the foot - Vegetarians!

System

Re:Midnight ponderings

torilang wrote:

going with your thread then we'd be basically taxing the fatties? since more calories mean more fat. could solve the obesity problem and boost the NHS coffers.

Just be careful...