British entrepreneurs are always gloomy at this time of year: in addition to the post-Christmas decline in sales and the traditional grey January weather of the British Isles, there is the deadline for the submission of personal tax returns.

There is no point complaining: death and taxes are to be expected, however much one wishes otherwise.

Yet it is unfair that entrepreneurs are taxed several times over because the British government – like most others – prefers that the voters not know exactly how much of their wealth it is seizing.

Other nations may not be as greedy, but this is what the British government takes from its entrepreneurs:

1   Before it makes a single penny, a business must pay a property tax, called “business rates”, which is substantially greater than the equivalent tax on domestic property;

2   All but the very smallest businesses then pay a value added tax on all sales less cost of sales;

3   If a company manages to make a profit – or even if it assessed as making a profit according to some arcane rules – it must then pay a corporation tax;

4   When the entrepreneur draws money, he pays income tax on it;

5   If he draws money as salary, in addition to the income tax, there is a payroll tax, which is called “national insurance” but which is really a supplementary income tax by another name;

6   If the entrepreneur spends the money on himself and his family, he pays sales tax again because he pays the full value added tax on his purchases;

7   If the entrepreneur succumbs to the stress of all this, his children must pay inheritance tax, in effect a double tax on what the entrepreneur has already earned and on which he has already paid one lot of tax; and

8   Should such taxes be defended because they finance “public services”, in Britain at least, the use of public services by business usually involves an additional charge, such as road tax on business vehicles, congestion charges, fees for applications for licences and planning permission, and charges for the collection of non-domestic waste.

Property Tax, Sales Tax, Business Tax, Income Tax, Payroll Tax, Consumption Tax, “Unearned” Income and Gift Tax, and Fees and Charges for Services – there are arguments for and against each of them as the fairest and most efficient system of taxation, but a system which uses all eight of them is efficient at nothing but discouraging enterprise.