We are constantly astonished by the number of people in general, and the experts, professors, social campaigners, journalists and the rest of this priesthood in particular, who are blind to simple reality. A financial transaction tax is a classic example of the height of ignorance. When a transaction is taxed, less transactions of that class will take place as a direct result. And the capital will...

“Mansion Tax” is a misnomer, as it is just a tax on quite ordinary houses in London and the South East. A real mansion would be a seat like Hinderton Hal in Cheshire. Hinderton Hall in the photograph is a Great Western Railway locomotive, 5900 built in 1931. What is the connection? The Great Western’s Hall Class locomotives were named after posh country mansions. There were over...

More ass to kick, this time in the Guardian.

The budget will be discussed and dissected for the next couple of weeks, as usual. People are naturally concerned about how it will affect them. There will no doubt be unintended winners and losers in this annual game. But most of the discussion about the wider economic impact will be off the point, because it ignores the phenomenon of tax incidence: that the individual or body nominally responsible...

The leading tax experts who conducted the Mirrlees Review came to the conclusion that Land Value Taxation is such a powerful idea, and one that has been so comprehensively ignored by governments, that the case for a thorough official effort to design a workable solution seems to be overwhelming. In particular, the report noted, significant adjustment costs would be merited if the inefficient and...