Current affairs - Land Value Tax Campaign

UK could face worse than seven lean years

Written on 29 March 2012. Posted in Economics.

Chris Giles writes in the FT: Forget the granny tax, forget the 50p rate of tax and forget the pasty tax. The most important, but least discussed element of last week’s Budget is the continuing evidence of Britain’s underlying economic weakness. We would suggest that the first place to look for a supply-side blockage is the tax system, variously estimated to cost the UK economy between...

Plans for an income tax scrapped

Written on 14 March 2012. Posted in Taxation.

Schemes for a national ‘income tax’ in the UK have been ruled out as impracticable. The aim had been to introduce a tax system intended to be based on people’s “ability to pay”. Officials say it would take further three years just to conduct a nationwide survey of wages and salaries. Inspectors at HM Revenue & Customs had logged details of the wages paid to 25 million...

Mansion Tax could dash Great Expectations

Written on 13 March 2012. Posted in Taxation.

We are no fans of the mansion tax, which is as bad an implementation of a property tax as it is possible to conceive. However faced with the prospect, one old friend of mine has decided to realise a long-standing ambition and convert part of his West Wing into additional stables. It will all be done very tastefully of course but the alterations will take the value of his pile just below the threshold....

Call for manufacturing Tsar to boost UK economy

Written on 27 February 2012. Posted in Taxation.

The FT reports that “A study of UK industry commissioned by David Cameron says Britain should appoint a “manufacturing tsar” to champion the sector and help deliver a prolonged economic revival. “A report compiled by Sir Anthony Bamford, chairman of JCB, the construction machine company, says Britain should implement a nine-point plan to strengthen the role of manufacturing...

Are we really “Single Taxers”

Written on 25 February 2012. Posted in Taxation.

All taxes must be evaluated according to their likely side effects. The well-known effect of the windows tax was bricked-up windows. But the reasoning behind this tax was the assumption that the number of windows in a property was an indication of the owner’s ability to pay. Those of us who in favour of LVT would not seriously argue that the so-called “sin taxes” should be got...

What the Chancellor ought to do

Written on 20 February 2012. Posted in Taxation.

Anyone who knows anything about the Campaign will know what changes we would like to see made to the tax system. However, even if the government gave the go-ahead tomorrow, it would take at least three years to get LVT up and running. So what would we like to see the Chancellor do at the forthcoming budget? The LibDems are said to be pressing for a wealth tax, but they have no business to be arguing...

A land value value tax for Wales?

Written on 10 February 2012. Posted in Taxation.

BBC video of speech to Welsh Assembly

More quantitative easing

Written on 10 February 2012. Posted in Banking.

Martin Rowson’s cartoon in the Guardian says nearly all there to be said on the latest round of quantitive easing But not quite all. From our perspective, it is proof of the intellectual bankruptcy of the economic policies and theories followed by the Conservative government, the Labour government before it, and the economists and bankers who advise them. What is, however, hard to understand...

Lukewarm support from where we would most expect it

Written on 4 February 2012. Posted in Taxation.

The strange case of Tax Justice Network Most advocates of Land Value Taxation have arrived at their conclusion because, amongst other things, they regard the present tax system as unjust. We would expect that an organisation going by the name “Tax Justice Network” (TJN) would be actively campaigning in the same direction as ourselves.

Global jobs crisis

Written on 28 January 2012. Posted in Economics.

The International Labor Organization has published its Global employment trends 2012: preventing a deeper jobs crisis. It tells us that, “The world faces a challenge of creating 600 million jobs over the next decade.” When the phrase “job creation” is mentioned, read no further. Who in their right mind would create a job for themselves? The purpose of work is to satisfy our...

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