A taxing question
Tax avoidance has been in the news lately, with campaigns and demonstrations being run by organisations such as UK UNCUT. But what are the best places to avoid paying tax?
No win for UK
A win for the Alternative Vote (Yes) could have opened the door to other political groupings that could present other ways of looking at the world than the received ones. So in the long run it might have helped change things for the better. With the two party system entrenched for a least a generation, political discourse will remain locked down whilst both groupings collude in sustaining the false...
Liberals’ well-deserved battering at polls
The Liberals’ battering at yesterday’s election should give LVT supporters no pleasure, but it is well-deserved. Given the first serious taste of government since the end of World War One, they failed utterly to present the party’s distinctive philosophy. LVT, together with free trade, was an important component of that. Even today, two members of the cabinet claim to be LVT advocates,...
Think of the economy as a car
This comment turned up recently in response to the blog Tax Haven Explosion (below) on the website of Tax Justice Network. TJN is running a campaign against tax avoidance, in particular against tax havens. Now the obvious solution is to switch as much taxation as possible onto property charges, preferably on the rental value of land. That puts a stop on the whole thing at the outset. Any other approach...
Fudging the principles
We have now had a chance to study and think about the report produced by the Parliamentary Treasury Committee, following its inquiry at the beginning of the year made under the title “Principles of Tax Policy”. As we reported earlier, the case for land value taxation was presented by a large minority of the submissions and could hardly be ignored.
The report stated that “the...
Treasury Committee Report on principles of taxation
The Treasury Committee into the principles of taxation has now published its report. In accordance with our usual practice, we will not be commenting in detail until we have had an opportunity to study it carefully and consider its implications. However, at first glance it appears to offer a good overview of tax principles, which we broadly accept. There are, however, in relation to those principles,...
The principles of tax policy
Last November the House of Commons Treasury Committee announced an Inquiry into “The Principles of tax policy”. There were 46 responses, of which seven were from bodies that exist to promote LVT: the Coalition for Economic Justice, ALTER, the School of Economic Science, the Labour Land Campaign, the Henry George Foundation, Transforming Communities and this Campaign. In addition, the...
Chinese ghost city in desert
Something strange is going on in China with ghost cities being built in the middle of deserts. This sounds like some form of mad land speculation. But real resources have been wasted in the process. We have always been told that land value taxation would cause this problem but it seems to happen in the absence of this tax.
To George, from Mervyn
On Wednesday the Bank of England publishes its quarterly inflation report and the Governor, Mervyn King, will tomorrow write his customary official letter to the Chancellor explaining the reasons why the target of 2% has not been met for the 10th time since April 2007. Our man on the inside managed to hack into the Governor’s computer and has emailed a copy of a private letter sent to Downing...
Principles of Tax Policy
The Campaign’s submission to the Treasury Committee into the principles of tax policy can be read here.