Our team of newshounds stalk the corridors, comb the columns and earwig the airways to bring you the latest news, comment and criticism.  Our reporter had a hidden recorder when Alasspoor Darling was interviewed by the BBC after the announcement that Britain was officially out of recession. This is what the Chancellor really said: “I can officially announce this evening that we have come...

Did you know that 2010 is European Year of Poverty?  The EU commission group established to run this campaign tells us that “The European Union is one of the richest areas in the world, but still 17% of EU citizens have such limited resources that they cannot afford the basics.”   This is interesting because it is EU policies that have played a significant part in creating...

A row about tax exiles has erupted again. The main point made is that people with huge fortunes round the world should pay UK tax if they are UK citizens. Why?

So-called Roof Tax is tax on floors Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) is the official term for the so-called Roof Tax which will replace Section 106 agreements as a means of capturing some of the land value released from planning permissions. One of the last inept acts of a wretched and dying government, the proposal has been put together following the collapse of the Planning Gain Supplement....

The Republic of Ireland Commission on Taxation Report 2009, which runs to over 500 pages, has this little bit about LVT, buried in the discussion on property taxation in general. In doing so, they have has walked away from the opportunity to give the country a competitive advantage – which it desperately needs in view of its location at the margins of Europe. Like the English Lyons Committee,...

“Britain’s leading companies are devising pay schemes that enable top executives to escape the new 50p rate of income tax for high earners that takes effect in April, the Guardian has learned. “Some of the biggest companies in the country are constructing complex pay schemes that risk infuriating government ministers, who are determined to crack down on tax avoidance – more...

“A plethora of populist micro measures” – a phrase used by FT journalist Philip Stephens in an article headed “Populism without purpose” – concisely sums up the Chancellor’s Pre-Budget statement. There is no coherent strategy for bringing down the government’s colossal deficit. But the British government has no coherent strategy for anything at all....

Adam Posen, the newest member of the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee, has said that the Government should consider imposing extra taxes on properties, suggesting that in future homeowners should have to pay an extra charge if prices rise too fast. He suggested that this may mean imposing capital gains taxes on first homes and raising stamp duty.

The row over tax avoidance by “non-domiciles” has erupted again, this time over the man who must be the richest would-be Tory MP, Zac Goldsmith. As always, the subject opens up a rich vein of twaddlespeak. The Guardian editorial writes, “This is not, as the Conservatives say, a minor and private matter. It exposes an obvious hypocrisy: that while the party preaches austerity, in...

“Compass” is a think tank that claims to be providing direction for the democratic left. A few months ago it published a report by Toby Lloyd, which was unequivocal in its support of land value taxation. Compass has swung. Its latest offering, “In Place of Cuts: Tax reform to build a fairer society”, puts forward what it describes as “a comprehensive analysis of the...