In Britain, we live in very uncertain political times. It is hard to recall a more open general election contest in most of our lifetimes than that which will take place in 58 days’ time. With virtually no serious observer predicting anything but a hung parliament, there’s more chance of accurately predicting tomorrow night’s lottery […]
It’s time to challenge the neo-Marxism dressed up as Christianity that appears to dominate Thought for the Day, the daily religious slot in the UK on BBC Radio 4. CapX Editor Iain Martin introduced Thought for the Day Watch after being dismayed with its view on Greek debt, property rights, and Islamic State. The prevailing assumptions of […]
Here are some ways to reduce the amount of tax you pay. Tell me which of them you think constitute sensible tax planning, and which amount to tax avoidance. (The examples I give are British, but most developed countries have equivalent mechanisms.) Buying premium bonds or other tax-free government products Putting your money in a […]
Does Giles Fraser have something on the producers of the Thought for the Day slot? What other explanation can there be for his ubiquity on BBC Radio 4? Again, apologies if you are reading this outside the UK and have no idea who Giles Fraser is. He is the trendy left-wing vicar who seems to […]
Last November the U.S. had its general elections. The party of tax cuts and a pro-growth agenda – the Republicans this time – was able to command the largest majority in the Peoples’ House since the 71st Congress was in session from 1929 to 1930. Republicans were also able to wrest control of the Senate […]
How can Scandinavians tax so much? This is the question that Henrik Jacobsen Kleven, professor of Economics at London School of Economics, explores in a new paper. The author gives a number of valuable insights. To begin with, Scandinavian welfare policies are not as progressively tilted towards income distribution as foreign observers might assume. Much […]
Companies do not pay taxes. Not a penny. It’s not because they won’t but because they can’t. Only people can pay tax. Had you been around at the time of the window tax, you would not have naively assumed that the casements themselves would spring to life and send off their due to the authorities. […]
It is an axiom of human behaviour that whenever a cherished ideology is discredited by experience its defeated disciples console themselves by claiming moral victory. Nowhere has sanctimonious humbug been more zealously propagated than by the adherents of dinosaur socialism in the realm of taxation. A kind of moralistic blackmail – effectively a theology rather […]
When David Cameron used his speech to Conservative party conference to announce that he wants to increase income tax thresholds there was uproar from his critics on the left. How dare the Prime Minister promise a tax cut when the UK is still running a giant deficit and adding to the debt burden with each […]
The recent world of political economy features the deep paradox. By common consent Thomas Piketty’s recent volume Capital in the Twenty-First Century has been hailed of the intellectual triumph of the year. Its bold recommendations make the theoretical case for a global income tax in the range of 54 to 80—a figure that has also […]
It’s the most astonishing economic statistic in Europe. Over the past four years, the United Kingdom has created more net jobs than the other 27 members of the EU put together. 1.8 million additional people have found work, and more Britons are now in employment than ever before in history. It’s true, of course, that the […]
In a scathing article this Monday, the New York Times has attacked recent free market tax reforms in Kansas. The state initiated two rounds of tax cuts in 2012 and 2013 – slashing 25% off the top rate and eliminating all taxes on business profits that are reported on individual income returns – a particularly unprecedented move. […]
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