Comment - Land Value Tax Campaign

The Need for Radical Tax Reform – article by Duncan Pickard

Written on 16 August 2022. Posted in Taxation.

This brief article neatly summarises the case for Land Value Taxation. It was prepared for Reform Scotland by Duncan Pickard The governments of most countries have budget deficits and increasing national debts. The taxes they currently collect are unable to meet the costs of health and welfare provision of their older people and for the care and education of their young ones. The majority of tax...

Raging inflation back

Written on 3 May 2022. Posted in Blog.

There is a lot of talk about the current inflation, which is being blamed on lack of competition. My suspicion is that that the current inflation is partly due to the amount of money that was pumped into the system during the Covid epidemic and partly the effect of a dozen years of Quantitative Easing, which was intended to cause a certain amount of inflation but failed to do so. It may be that...

The Chancellor’s Wife

Written on 11 April 2022. Posted in Blog.

A lot of words have been written about the Chancellor’s wife and her avoidance of tax through non-domicile status, while she receives large amounts of income generated in India. Most of the outrage is misguided. A country’s government has no legitimate claim on income generated in another country. It is up to the Indian government to levy taxes on income, received from activities in India, for the...

Where goods don’t cross borders, soldiers will

Written on 9 March 2022. Posted in General.

The title of this is attributed to Bastiat, but it is one of the core arguments for free trade, and well borne out by current affairs. The present boundaries of Ukraine were drawn by Lenin and Stalin. They include Polish, Hungarians and Slovaks, as well as Russians. There ia also religious diversity, with Eastern Orthodox, Greek Catholics and Roman Catholics. The Eastern Orthodox are...

Freeports announced

Written on 3 November 2021. Posted in Economics.

The government has just announced the first eight of the so-called freeports. These will be East Midlands Airport, Felixstowe and Harwich, Humber and Immingham, Liverpool, Plymouth, Solent (Southampton and Portsmouth), Lower Thames including Tilbury, Teesside. The announcement states that “Eligible businesses will have access to a suite of tax reliefs including Business Rates, Stamp Duty Land...

Pandora Papers

Written on 8 October 2021. Posted in Blog.

The publication of these papers about tax avoidance by the wealthy has generated the predictable torrent of righteous indignation. The most obvious points have been missed. UK property features prominetly among the assets which have been sheltered in tax havens. The property has not been off-shored anywhere. You can see most of the off-shored UK property in the two pictures of Central London,...

Tax hike bungle

Written on 8 September 2021. Posted in All posts.

Apart from a rise in the rate of VAT, it would be difficult to think of a worse way of raising additional revenue than by increasing the rate of National Insurance. ALL of the increase will end up being paid by employers. The increase in the “employees’ contribution” will spark of a round of pay claims, which, given the present tight supply of labour, employers will mostly be forced to give into,...

“Will house prices drop in 2022 after stamp duty holiday ends this year?”

Written on 4 July 2021. Posted in Economics.

… asks The Sun. Figures released by Nationwide yesterday show the relief is partly to blame for a surge in house prices at the fastest pace since 2004. Annual house price growth jumped to 13.4% [£29,000] in June – the strongest growth since November 2004. Tax on the first £500,000 of a home purchase has temporarily been scrapped until the end of today (June 30). The relief means Brits...

Apologists for land bankers at work.

Written on 13 June 2021. Posted in Economics.

More nonsense from Centre for Cities, the opening sentence contradicts the headline just to warn you that you are about to ride the rollercoaster of flawed logic: No, landbanking does not cause the housing crisis – here’s why Landbanking is caused by the current discretionary planning system. A new flexible zoning system will end landbanking and the housing crisis. So, er, landbanking does not...

“A Route Map to a Fair Independent Scotland”

Written on 7 June 2021. Posted in Politics.

The Social Justice and Fairness Commission (“established by SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon MSP in September 2019. It comprises both SNP members and independent contributors and we have had the privilege of leading its work.”) has published its report (h/t JD from the Scottish Land Revenue Group, not to be confused with Annual Ground Rent – a fairer way for an independant Scotland,...

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