A new report from the Resolution Foundation Companies says that employers who fail to pay the minimum wage should be punished more harshly in an effort to crack down on low pay. Oh dear.

VAT is amongst the worst conceivable of all taxes; it fails all the criteria set out in the Canons of Taxation. Yet its advance continues like the plague. India has adopted it, and now Saudi Arabia is going down the same path, as oil revenues fall and the tax free economy comes to an end. Oil revenues are of course a resource rent, and so Saudi Arabia is accustomed to funding public revenue from...

Exit from the EU opens up the possiblity of some quick wins, sometimes referred to as “low-hanging fruit”.

The figures, prepared by our resident accountant from the latest tax tables, show the excess cost to the employer compared to the real purchasing power of net wages ie the zero figure represents wages net of sales taxes. Thus for someone to earn £10,000 of net purchasing power, the employer must pay a surcharge of 55% on top, down from 60% (see last year’s figures for comparison) Any figure...

It is unusual for economics experiments to be carried out, from which firm conclusions can be drawn. A recent one in Sweden involved the reduction of Value Added Tax for restaurants from 25% to 12% on 1 January 2012. Analysis of the results by the national statistical bureau SCB show that the monthly sales volumes for November 2012 were 7.2% higher than in November 2011. Café sales were up by 11.3%,...

Tax Research may not promote the LVT case but Richard Murphy, who runs it, certainly provides us with a steady stream of evidence about how rotten the tax system is. In this latest piece he has focussed on Value Added Tax. Pity he refuses to draw the obvious conclusion.

Much of the uproar over the VAT increase has focussed on whether it is regressive and bad for the poor. This is very much missing the point about VAT. It is very bad for business, especially smallish ones. Either they cannot claim back the VAT paid on inputs (if they are unregistered) or they are saddled with the administrative costs, which are considerable. And they have to build the VAT into...

We wre pleased to see that National Insurance has came to the fore as an election issue, and re-publish here the arithmetic of the jobs tax. The Campaign has no party political allegiance but in this instance we agree with the Conservatives who came out against the forthcoming National Insurance increase. However, since it is possible that the Conservatives, if they form a government, will end up...