Scottish Labour’s planned tax rise is a bad idea because the last thing the Scottish economy or taxpayers needs is higher taxes. What the place could do with instead is proper public sector reform, less government interference and the introduction of measures to encourage more entrepreneurialism and capitalism. Short of a miracle, Scotland isn’t going […]
There is ample reason to believe the international system for taxing corporate profits is in dire need of reform. Corporate income taxes (CITs) were devised at a time when capital was much less mobile, both due to the nature of economic transactions and existing technology, and because international trade was constrained by protectionist barriers. Today, […]
Poor old Google. Well, not so poor actually. According to their SEC 10-K filing group profits amounted, in 2014, to $17.26bn. Google’s UK sales (mainly internet advertising), based upon the billing address of customers, were around $6.5bn in 2014. Lots of sales, but, apparently no profits. Google themselves told the Public Accounts Committee in 2012 […]
The former secretary of state and senator from New York, Hillary Clinton, reportedly will on Wednesday announce plans to impose an “exit tax” on companies that move their headquarters out of America or merge with foreign firms to escape America’s unreasonably high corporate taxes. Back in 2012, when Senator Schumer, Democrat of New York, and the then-Speaker of the […]
There are plenty of things wrong with our welfare state in Britain. It costs a fortune to run, it offers disincentives to work and sometimes it is the people most in need who claim the least. Whether you are on the right or the left of the political spectrum, it’s hard to argue that it’s a […]
Now the government has U-turned on plans to abolish tax credits, it should look at housing benefit for welfare savings—most housing benefit is a transfer to landlords and the remainder is an inefficient and distortionary intervention. It should abolish the £26bn system and use the money to fund tax cuts for low earners and a […]
What’s this? An SNP MP campaigning against tax avoidance schemes is revealed to have benefitted from a scheme that could have been used to minimise tax. The Mail on Sunday Scottish edition alleges that Phil Boswell enjoyed an £18,000 interest free loan via an employment contract. These activities are entirely legal, but awkwardly Boswell has made much […]
Pennsylvania has been without a budget for over three months, and now Governor Wolf is is holding school funding hostage. The budget stalemate was caused by the governor’s proposed tax increase—the largest in the state’s history. Governor Wolf claims that the tax increase is necessary to achieve a balanced budget. But opponents of the governor’s […]
Back in the days before the financial crisis, when the economy was assumed by many to be a settled subject and Britain’s then opposition party needed something else to talk about, the young Tory leadership latched on to Kids Company. That is the name of the now defunct charity that imploded earlier this year after […]
Tax credits have dominated political debate in recent weeks. To cut, or not to cut, has been the key question that has divided the nation – and even the Government itself. Yet never has so much been said about something with so little basis in cold, hard facts. Instead of a genuine debate about the realities […]
A classical Conservative believes private property exists in a moral, not merely political sense. We could truly own things even if we lived on a stateless desert island and my property is truly mine, like my hair or my sense of humour. One of the things the state exists for is to protect private property […]
Occasionally, a statement by somebody catches the spirit of the times and sets tongues wagging. Such is the case in the City of London this week with the call by John McFarlane, the chairman of Barclays, for banks to pull their socks up, challenge politicians, and to create a European investment banking giant. He followed […]
Socialism, as Thatcher told the 1976 Christian Democratic Union Conference, sees the “state take more in tax and leave less for the individual” and results in “decisions affecting people’s lives” being “taken from them, instead of being taken by them”. Such socialist ideals have seemingly inspired Jamie Oliver’s declaration of war on sugar in his […]
I’m not a medical expert but I am pretty sure that if someone gave me a free summer house or bought me, say, a pedalo ride or an iPad, it would probably make me feel better. So it comes as no surprise that our esteemed medical professionals have discovered that, by handing out millions of pounds […]
In a recent, thought-provoking CapX article, Alex Verkhivker and Hugo Winn argued that free-marketeers should support the introduction of a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT). Verkhivker and Winn make three key arguments in favour of an FTT: it would curtail damaging high frequency trading, it would increase liquidity and it would force the financial sector to […]
Benjamin Franklin once said, “The only thing guaranteed in life is death and taxes”. We can all find ourselves moaning about taxes from time to time. But looking back on Britain’s tax history, here are 5 direct levies that we can be grateful about not having to pay for. 1. The window tax (or glass […]
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