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Taxi tax fiddles and other Swedish difficulties

There was a news piece this morning (8 July) about the problem the Swedish tax authorities are having with getting the right amount of tax out of taxi drives. Yesterday there was a report of the crack-down by Skattverket on restaurants who fiddle their takings; a popular method has been by manipulating their cash registers. So far, over 100 restaurateurs have been convicted and 45 sent to prison. Sweden...

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UK economy – no silver lining

The news on the UK economy gives no indication of any silver lining to the cloud. All is talk of recession, a house price crash, a falling exchange rate and inflation. The falling exchange rate is more serious than usually acknowledged. A year ago, a Euro cost 71p, whereas now it is nearly 80p. But the Euro itself has also been losing purchasing power, and all these changes will feed through into...

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Nationwide Building Society figures

According to the Nationwide Bulding Society’s statistics, The price of a typical house fell by 0.4% in April Housing measures in the budget are welcome, but are unlikely to turn things around Economic fundamentals will continue to dominate housing market prospects There seems to be a sub-text here which says, “Please can we have our bubble back?”

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The return of de-roofing

A article in today’s (29 June ) Sunday Telegraph reports that growing evidence of the disastrous side effects of the removal of empty property rates relief on commercial buildings has led members of the Government to reveal privately they are already considering reintroducing the relief. The change in law, which Government estimated would yield an extra £1.4bn from the commercial property...

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Peverse incentives

One of our members was complaining about the new on-line tax returns and the amount of tax he is now having to pay. For some reason they have changed the forms which was a bit of a nuisance as he was all geared up to filling in the old ones. No doubt a lot of people will be thrown into panic when they start to fill them in as the deadline approaches next year. But his real complaint is the extra...

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Land Value Taxation and Local Government Finance

Central collection or local? Author:  David K. MillsDecember 2003 Background and Introduction     Proponents of collection of the National Land-Rent to fund the public revenue – a policy known in this country historically as land value taxation (“LVT”) – will not gainsay the proposition that, in theory, the rental value of all land throughout the world belongs to all of the...

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Practical Politics No.75

Practical Politics No.75 January 1998 FIRST FRUITS Last September in the devolution referendum Scots voted for a parliament in Edinburgh. It is now clear that their effort has endowed a small privileged group of landowners, with prospects of more where that came from. “Edinburgh is enjoying a boom as a result of the decision to locate the new Scottish parliament in the city.

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Crash Course – from boom to slump

  CRASH COURSE – FROM BOOM TO SLUMP Landing In Trouble, appeared in Issue No. 29, of Practical Politics, July 1992. In the previous Issue we had set out our record in predicting the troubles we saw ahead. Describes the boom / slump cycle related to property speculation. LANDING IN TROUBLE For the purposes of this analysis, we largely take the political and economic situation as we find it....

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A Matter of Economics

A discussion paper critical of the use of the term ‘economic rent’ in contemporary economics. Summary Argument for the overt taxation of land value in lieu of other taxes, a live issue not so long ago, is now largely disregarded by economists, politicians and commentators. Only the capital gains realised upon betterment excite much attention. One explanation may be found in evolved...

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