Zoe Williams is quite right (Why we should all learn to love paying our taxes, 29 December). Given, as John Lanchester explains in his excellent book How to Speak Money, we have, by a process he calls “reversification”, turned the odious concept of debt into something respectable by calling it credit, why not start talking about the privilege of paying taxes rather than the burden? My father was very proud when his income rose high enough to have to pay income tax. As a teacher in the second part of last century, my income never rose high enough for me to qualify for the higher rate, but it would have been nice if it had.
Peter Wrigley
Birstall, West Yorkshire
• I am at the age when I start to benefit from the taxes I have paid over the years. I feel no guilt at receiving my pension and know that should I be ill the NHS is still there for me. I will no doubt be relying on local services for the elderly, paid for by my tax. My father said to me long ago: “Never worry about those who claim to be paying too much tax, you have to be earning the money to pay it.” I am sure there are many working long hours for low wages who wish they were wealthy enough to complain about their taxes.
David Watson
Nutley, East Sussex
• Speaking on the Today programme, Jon Moulton of Better Capital, owner of City Link, said: “City Link has paid a fortune into the exchequer on such things as PAYE.” I must have been ungrateful to my employers over a lifetime for not recognising that it was they, not I, who’d been paying my PAYE. He was not questioned about how many of the delivery personnel were self-employed and, therefore, paid no PAYE or had NI paid on their behalf. I worry about the influence the likes of Mr Moulton have on my daily life.
Ken Cordingley
Williton, Somerset
