Comment - Land Value Tax Campaign

Why the governent can ignore what the CBI say

Written on 29 April 2012. Posted in Economics.

All the decisive actions in the the economy happen at the margin. When big fish like the Confederation of Briitish Industry complain, the government can safely ignore them. This explanation by Mark Wadsworth show why this is so.

Pious hypocrisy about tax avoidance

Written on 22 April 2012. Posted in Taxation.

I for one am sick of complaints about tax avoidance. It is legal and it arises because of the incompetence of legislators. The papers this weekend are full of ill-thought-out comment on the subject. Those who write this stuff, and most politicians, appear unable to grasp the most obvious fact: taxes on people’s earnings and companies’ profits are bound to be avoided and evaded. It cannot...

Cameron family fortune made in tax havens

Written on 21 April 2012. Posted in Politics.

So what? That was my response to this headline in the Guardian. No doubt more ink will be spilled in pious expressions of disapproval. None of the commentators, probably, will make the obvious point that leakage is inherent in the concept of using the taxation of incomes and profits for public revenue. The only way to prevent these losses is by substantially replacing these existing taxes with an...

Tax Research needs to think more deeply

Written on 10 April 2012. Posted in Taxation.

Richard Murphy of Tax Research, the think tank behind the Tax Justice Network, came up with this in response to a discusssion. And then closed the forum from further comments. “Whenever someone mentions tax and theft in the same phrase the response ‘anti-social libertarian’ (or worse) comes to mind. How about tax for redistribution? Or for repricing market failure? Or economic...

Ben Rae

Written on 7 April 2012. Posted in General.

We are sorry to report the death of one of our most loyal supporters, Ben Rae.

Rich root out stamp duty loopholes

Written on 7 April 2012. Posted in Taxation.

Ed Hammond and Jim Pickard write in the FT, “Wealthy homebuyers have already found loopholes to avoid paying the top stamp duty rate, less than a month after George Osborne introduced a higher levy as the centrepiece of his Budget… One of the new avoidance schemes, marketed by a handful of London-based solicitors, involves buyers signing multiyear leases that are automatically renewed...

Kittens will die

Written on 31 March 2012. Posted in General.

A new report from a leading animal wellfare organisation has shown that the introduction of LVT would lead to the death of millions of kittens.

Pasty makers browned-off

Written on 30 March 2012. Posted in General.

Our sleuth, who works for a firm of contract cleaners, has now got micro-sized tape recorders in pretty well all the places where government ministers are likely to meet. We will not reveal how this is done as it is so absurdly easy. They are checked regularly and although most of what they pick up is crushingly boring, once in a while a real gem turns up, like this little conversation here. –...

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...

Amazing maze

Written on 24 March 2012. Posted in Tax Justice Network.

The BBC ran a programme on taxation in is series The Moral Maze last week. How frustrating it was to listen to. The only coherent comments came from Richard Murphy, who did as well as anyone could given the absolute need not to even hint at LVT. Had any of the speakers done so, or were known as an advocate of LVT, they would immediately be put on the list of people who could not be allowed to appear...

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