Robin Schlinkert

The most frustrating thing in this saga is that "stay in the single market" (eg via EFTA) would have been a perfectly fine solution for many people on both sides

And yet, even now with labour in charge, it's not even on the table

Is there any decent replacement for the "personal connection"-network?

Seems like a pretty fundamental need..

Yes, sorry if I didn't explain it clearly!

That's exactly the point, a single, transparent income account per tax-resident

What the person does with the money once taxes and pensions contributions are deducted would of course be entirely up to them

Unfortunately many "philanthropists" make donations where they are least needed

Compare the average state school trying to raise £100s in a bake sale with the regular £millions of donations to Eton, Winchester and the like

To me, this always seems the weirdest kind of "charitable" giving!

So in practice, the only function of payroll would be to pay the gross salary into a designated "income account"

Everything else is then administered by the bank, and decided by the individual (eg how much is allocated to pensions, which provider, whether it includes some insurance, etc)

The UK has a strange parallel system - I was really thinking about the "private" part (ie stakeholder and other group pensions arrangements, which are picked by the employer).

I'm not proposing any specific shape of the pension system

But placing that decision on employers is a poor design, especially for the many small and micro employers

Banks are much better placed both to collect taxes and to administer payments to pension providers (chosen by the individual)

That's also true for UK (private) pensions. But due to how they are managed, many people end up with multiple small funds.

Also, employees of small companies often get worse conditions than those of large companies who can negotiate with providers.

Glad to hear it works! (assuming it does)

The whole concept of "employer provided benefits" is past its sell-by-date in a world where fewer employees stay with one firm throughout their lives

And it would be a huge boost to small employers if they didn't have to deal with pensions etc

An actual huge simplification would be to move all payroll related taxation and benefits away from the employer and on to banks

Everyone has one "income account", and taxes, pensions etc would be deducted there

Changing employer? Multiple employers? Self employed? Easier for employee and employer