Most people don’t care whether pensions are underfunded. After all, retirement is far in the future. But if their income taxes are going to go up because state pensions are underfunded — that’s another story. One advantage Illinois has is that the state has a low individual income tax rate. But now some legislators want […]
Politics cannot be done without “gifts” to voters. But every election promise has to be paid for. With budget crisis constantly looming around many governments face possible backlash when trying to spend more from public budgets. However, there is always an option to hide the cost of a policy into prices of various products and […]
I’m finishing my next book and something is bothering me. The book will be published in September and it’s about the City. It is an attempt to place the exciting human story of Big Bang and the financial revolution in a wider historical context. Towards the end, I’m wrestling with one question in particular, however. […]
Jeremy knew he had seen it somewhere. “I have seen it somewhere. That is very clear and important,” he told his head of communications, Seumas Milne, who having failed to find the cursed document in the filing cabinet had now started rifling through the leader’s books. “Might you have used it as a bookmark?” said […]
The outrage created by the Panama Papers is understandable. The money laundering that persons at the highest echelons have been engaged in increases the sentiment held by many “ordinary people” that they are living in a society dominated by an elite engaged in pervasive corruption and endemic greed. For many, this scandal will confirm their […]
Have you ever bought an ISA? Or held premium bonds? Then, my friend, you are a tax avoider. Sensible tax planning doesn’t make you a bad person. If you have money to give away, give it to a well-chosen charity; don’t hand it to the government to spend on subsidies to wealthy landowners/mandatory racism awareness […]
As Dominic Lawson pointed out in the Sunday Times, David Cameron was foolish to ever condemn the tax affairs of others practising avoidance (which is legal and commonplace.) When in 2012 he attacked Jimmy Carr for “immoral” tax avoidance he left himself open to charges of hypocrisy. Cameron realised this, which is why almost unnoticed he later […]
In an interview with the Washington Post, Republican Party presidential frontrunner Donald Trump insisted that he could eliminate the nation’s $19 trillion national debt within two terms as president. Of all Trump’s exaggerations, this may be the greatest. Put simply, his stated policies make it impossible. Earlier in his campaign, Trump introduced a tax proposal […]
Even before news broke about the offshore dealings of Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, the British public wanted David Cameron to do something about the UK’s network of secretive tax havens. In a ComRes poll, commissioned by Global Witness and Christian Aid, before the 11.3 million documents were leaked to a German newspaper, more than […]
In every crisis there lies an opportunity. And that applies even to a crisis as large and potentially scandalous as that revealed by the so-called Panama Papers. Over the coming days and weeks the financial behaviour of many rich, powerful and influential individuals will come under the microscope. There will be accusations of hypocrisy – […]
In his first speech as Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull proclaimed his intention to lead “a thoroughly liberal government, committed to freedom, the individual, and the market.” Six and a half months later, and Turnbull is finally beginning to live up to his promise. Nothing highlights this more than the tax reform proposal put forward […]
The recent budget controversy in the United Kingdom has placed a sharp focus on the ongoing debate about austerity and spending. It’s no surprise that the government’s opponents have criticized George Osborne’s efforts to eliminate the budgetary deficit. It’s more surprising that criticism has also come from within the Cabinet. There’s no such internal dissent […]
You may, dear reader, be under the impression that Scotland is not like England. You may have heard it said that the two countries are now so different they scarcely share a common political culture. The Tory shires of deepest England are so conservative, so reactionary, so-bloody-gin-and-tonic that it’s hard to see how they can […]
A common feature in British politics is pride in our ‘social safety net’. But the tectonic plates beneath the welfare state are shifting, and the public risk finding themselves bound tightly in the illiberal modern alternative: the social straightjacket. The depth of the difference between the two is well-disguised. Very often the shift from one […]
One of the most amusing aspects of the aftermath of George Osborne’s latest Budget has been listening to the SNP’s deputy leader Stewart Hosie offer a punchy account of how the Chancellor got his forecasts all wrong. From the party that would have landed Scotland with a £15bn black hole and the worst deficit in […]
Last week, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew blasted the IRS for its poor customer service. In 2015, the average wait time when someone called the IRS for help was 23.5 minutes, and just 38% of questions to the IRS were answered. The IRS’ response has been to ask for more money. But even the extra $290 […]
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