Few political questions are as basic, or as pressing, as how a government raises the money it spends – and the last year in British politics has provided ample examples of the political pitfalls of tax reform.
In principle a good tax system should be a winning combination of fairness, efficiency, smooth revenue raising and growth-enhancing incentives. The UK does reasonably well on some of these fronts, but overall our system is a burdensome, convoluted mess that is ripe for reform.
So if Jeremy Hunt really wants us to have the ‘most competitive tax system of any major country’, what does he need to do? And what, in the short time between now and the next election, are the most politically feasible reforms he could come up with?
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To run a critical eye over the iniquities of the British tax system, we called on the expertise of the Centre for Policy Studies’ Head of Tax, Tom Clougherty.
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