The main Opposition parties in the UK have long argued against tax havens. They oppose tax rules that exempt too many businesses or too much turnover from tax, and oppose any ârace to the bottomâ by countries seeking to undercut others with very low rates. They have a new powerful ally in Joe Biden who wants the world to sign up to a minimum rate of 21% on business profits and to definitions of where profits are booked that keeps them safely away from havens.The EU agrees.
What is odd is how the Opposition parties have failed to name and condemn the Republic of Ireland as one of the most successful exploiters of the tax haven approach. With a knock out low rate of 12.5% and favourable rules over definition and location of profits Ireland has attracted a large number of US multinationals and booked substantial parts of their business. President Biden and the U.K. left should have them at the top of their list of wrongdoers.
The Irish Policy has of course worked. The Republicâs business bonanza means the state collects more from business as a proportion of its tax revenue than many countries who charge much higher rates of tax. Because so much more business turnover is booked in the Republic, Ireland emerges as one of the highest GDP per capita countries in the world. Irish per capita output and income is 166% above Spain, 136% above Italy, 94% above France, 86% above the U.K. and even 20% higher than the US from whose companies gets much of its extra business revenue. (2019 World Bank figures)
The Irish example both shows lower tax rates can deliver more revenue and more GDP, and shows that it entails switching turnover and profits around the world in legal ways to cut the effective tax rate. If Ireland had to levy a 21% tax she would get less inward investment and taxable turnover from large US multinationals. Her business tax revenue and GDP per head would sink. When will the President and the others united against tax havens name Ireland as one of the leading exemplars of the tax haven approach?
April 12, 2021
Tax competition is vital to keep taxes down. It would be far better world if no countries taxed above circa 20% of GDP. Then governments would have far less or other peopleâs money to waste and do harm with. Such as pointless wars, green lunacy subsidies, HS2, the endless corruption, test and trace, smart meters, the endless red tape.
The democratic system has an inherent fault in that politicians can buy votes by promising to give additional benefits and/or services to voters that only other people will be forced to pay for. Or promising rent controls to tenants that will just be stolen off landlord as the appalling Edstone Milliband tried to do.
There is much to be said for zero corporation tax so long as the companies reinvested to grow the business. and create more jobs. Just tax wages and distributions. The huge CT and entrepreneurs relief tax increases by Socialist Sunak are a huge attack on business and very a big mistake. As are all his other back door tax increases on income tax, pensions pots, IHT, CGT and the rest. Plus the attacks on the self employed and gig workers and all the green lunacy. They will raise less not more and destroy jobs.
April 12, 2021
Indeed HMRC distinguish between trading and investment businesses in determining elgibility for Entrepreneurs’ Relief, and could easily impose zero CT on genuine trading businesses, even if standard income rates of CT on investment businesses.
April 12, 2021
@LL; “The democratic system has an inherent fault in that politicians can buy votes by promising to give additional benefits and/or services to voters that only other people will be forced to pay for.”
Oh the irony! That from someone who seems to have made his wealth from the post 1979 rental property boom, a boom that could never have existed had LA council houses not been
given away…sorry, sold off at a discount, reducing the active NFP rental sector to a fraction of what it had become since 1945.April 12, 2021
Let’s fix that…
A boom which would never have existed had a Socialist planning system not restricted a free market in land for house building….
April 12, 2021
@mickc: Except during the 1960s and ’70s, under mostly Socialist govts, the UK built far more homes than we have in the last 40 years!
Like so many on the hard right, you just do not seem to be able to understand that Socialism is about opportunity for all, not just opportunity for the few, as you appear to prefer.
April 12, 2021
In theory it is Jerry but sadly the results of socialism in practice over the decades has not brought opportunity for all.
April 12, 2021
Mickc
April 12, 2021
Jerry, Like so many on the “hard left” you cannot help yourself claiming the other person is “hard right” as your trump card. Are we meant to be impressed? Try making a case based on facts, rather than epithets.
Ps: that doesn’t mean exclaiming “oh the irony” at the drop of a hat, or slagging off Thatcher’s governments, or pretending that a Tory run 1950s socialist state is the best thing since Mother’s Pride.
April 13, 2021
@NickC; Your comment tell us more about your politics than they do mine.
“Try making a case based on facts, rather than epithets.”
I did, you ignored them, preferring to attack me with “epithets” yourself, wonder why, does the truth sing? If I’m “hard Left”, in your mind, so be, I’ll wear the badge with pride.
“slagging off Thatcherâs governments”
Hypocrite! You attack me for “slagging off Thatcher’s governments” but you go on to slag off the Churchill, Eden & Macmillan governments in your next breath…
April 12, 2021
+1
April 12, 2021
LL – your +1 is for mickc or for jerry? This might be obvious or not but this happens all the time on replies. This site is incapable of indication to whom the reply is for. But it’s easy to name the person first then it’s clear. Few bother to do this.
April 12, 2021
Jerry, I think one of the problems with “right to buy” was that too much discount was given and councils were not allowed to use that income to build new council houses.
April 12, 2021
There was no problem with right to buy. Every vacant council house should be sold to the highest bidder. Every council should be prevented from having anything to do with building houses and âinvestingâ ratepayers money.
April 12, 2021
@James1; “Every vacant council house should be sold to the highest bidder.”
Meaning that every homeless person has no chance of having an affordable place to live.
“Every council should be prevented from having anything to do with building houses “
Quite the opposite, all the time private developers sit on land and refuse to build, even when planning consent has been approved, after all we are talking about necessary homes here, not some highly discretionary purchase.
With views like yours have you ever stopped to wonders why the Tory party, and the political right-wing in general, has so often been called “The Nasty party”?
April 12, 2021
So Jerry are you in favour of council houses being sold at a discount to tenants who have already paid loads in rent over the years of their tenancy or not?
PS a homeless person has virtually no income.
April 13, 2021
Right to Buy wasn’t vacant properties, it was properties that were rented.
April 13, 2021
@Peter; What about those who do/did the right thing (LA or private sector tenant), pay their rent and save for a deposit – should private land lords also have to contribute to their tenants mortgage deposit or just other tax payers, many of them who did the right thing without any help from your right wing ‘rob Paul to pay Peter’ version of socialism? Pun intended…
April 14, 2021
@Know-Dice; That’s my point, a homeless person has no means to pay rent on the open market, they have no means to pay council house rent for that matter either, but at least housing benefit in the latter situations is circular money within wider govt – not the transfer of taxpayers money to the private landlord.
April 12, 2021
@Know-Dice; No discount should have been given at all. Many others, my father included, not only had to fund the cost of rent for their LA council home & the cost of raising any family from their usual earnings, but also had put money aside for a deposit should they want to buy their own property. Often doing so for some years before they could actually get on that ladder, starting the long process of buying their own house via a mortgage on the open market.
April 13, 2021
Not sure where you are coming from there Jerry…You say “No discount”, but a discount surely would have and maybe did help your father get on the property ladder?
April 13, 2021
@Know-Dice; It would have been ever less helpful had there been no Council homes left for him to rent! Also see my reply to Peter above.
April 14, 2021
Jerry
Many saved for deposit hilst renting a council house.besides your Father.
The tapered discount simply helped them become owner occupiers.
April 14, 2021
@Peter2; As I said, way up!
April 14, 2021
Is that meant to be a proper response Jerry?
April 12, 2021
Surveys repeatedly show that 85% of us would prefer to own rather than rent. The rental sector has been more than twice as large as underlying demand for a long time. RTB encouraged a move towards greater ownership which was enhanced by most newbuilds also being purchased by owners. The big expansion in the BTL market came under Labour, who also accelerated the transition of ownership of council homes to HAs. They also created the property bubble with lax lending, which priced out the younger generation, but by privatising borrowing helped fund the balance of payments deficit created by deindustrialisation policies. That policy seems to be still with us today, even if BTL is being discouraged.
April 12, 2021
@Mark; Surveys tend to say what those buying the survey want you to hear…
Without RTB there would likely have been no BTL, because a/. there would have still been plentiful supply of NFP council housing and b/. there would not have been such a sea change in how people regard property, going from a place to live to a part of many peoples pension savings/investment plans.
April 12, 2021
I agree Mark. But how would you fix it? Nationalised Mortgage lender over 30/40 years with no (mortgage/rent) to pay upon retirement.
April 12, 2021
Selling of properties at a discount was an excellent plan by Thatcher, they were renting them out a a discount anyway so no one ever gave them up. I do have some rental properties but it is not the source of my main income or wealth.
April 12, 2021
@LL; Well, of course you will say that, not being somewhat biased with vestige interests and at all that, as a private Land Lord…
April 12, 2021
I say what I honestly believe to be true. I am not on the make at all. I have plenty to see my see my days out thanks very much. You cannot take it with you you know.
April 12, 2021
You do have a tendency, Jerry, to tell other people that their personal statements are untrue. Thus your argument today is about whether Lifelogic is being honest about the source of his wealth. How can you know? It was the same when I said I didn’t decide who my children were friends with – according to you I was lying. And – again according to you – one of my children couldn’t possibly be a GP.
April 13, 2021
@NickC; Because Mr Lifelogic has told us many times that he owns property and is a Landlord, indeed he confirmed so in the post above the one you replied to, try reading the debate, duh! I accept he might have gilded his own lilly somewhat, but even if he only owns a couple of BTL’s, as part of his pension plan, that still counts towards ones personal wealth, and nor is he likely to approve of rent controls etc.
As for the second part of your rant, it is part of a parents job to know who their children are mixing with, when & where, even more so during their are teenager years. Would you really have allowed your children to mix with whop ever, with drug pushers for example? If i recall, I disbelieved that your adult child could be a Doctor, judged on your apparent understanding of the medical matters being debated at the time -your recent rants about Covid have not changed my opinion.
April 12, 2021
Lifelogic, I donât agree, selling off council houses to many people who hadnât paid a penny of their own money on the rent of those council house homes relying on housing benefits for 18 and more years was a smack in the face for people struggling as Jerry said to save up a deposit and buy their first home. Many of the women I know that personally benefitted from this had boyfriends all those years and their partners then bought the homes for around ÂŁ7000. These houses were often sold with no provisions for the upkeep and care of them so lots have gone to rack and ruin with their council/housing association neighbours getting new roofs, windows, solar panels, fence – some I see have literal rubbish dumps in their front gardens, overgrown gardens, caravans parked up and lean to buildings. It is not fair to the council/housing association residents that are looking after their properties.
I also didnât agree on the Councils only selling all the Council houses to housing associations for ÂŁ7000 each with no conditions, homes left empty for months on end, a once per year in March spruce up of the estates, no litter cleanups, no street scene teams now.
April 13, 2021
Most Right to Buy applicants purchased their homes with a mortgage or bank loan.
So your tenant that had never paid a penny because they were on State benefits would not be able to buy.
The discount was tapered based on the number of years you had paid rent.
Some people had been paying rent for well over 20 years and had effectively already paid for the house.
But I haven’t heard of a ÂŁ7000 purchase prices unless the house was of non standard construction or needed a big refurbishment or both..
Also near where I live if you travel around former Council Estates you see owner occupiers have greatly improved their properties in comparison to the previous dreadful neglect of the Local Council.
As have housing associations who have taken over estates from the Councils.
April 14, 2021
@Peter2; “Some people had been paying rent for well over 20 years and had effectively already paid for the house.”
You miss the point, no one who both paid their rent and saved for a deposit on the open market received a tapered discount from the taxpayer despite all the years they had paid their council rent, at best they (perhaps) got mortgage tax relief, as did those using the RTB.
There are areas in my town that were well kept council housing estates in the 1970s and before, now they are privately owned rubbish tips, with pealing paint etc. Purchased cheaply, via your beloved tapered discounts, the owners know they can more than recover the money they paid back in the 1980s/90s.
Dreadful neglect of council estates by Local Councils were often a sign of other problems, such as diverting funds to vanity projects or worse. Council estates are not by nature bad areas simply because they are LA estates, nor their tenants, other than in some very exceptional circumstances – I’ve only known of one such area (not personally, I might add…!), in a New Town, were whole streets of the London East end slum clearance schemes had been moved to, they knew no different so was it any surprise when they carried on behaving as they had?
April 14, 2021
Peter2 two women I know bought their council houses at big discount having been on housing benefit whilst their children were growing up, their new husbands bought them with her discounted % off.
The entire councils housing stock was bought by the one new Housing Association the average price of the house bought in the whole Council was ÂŁ7000. I’m glad that where you live you don’t have these problems, in the area I grew up in and the one I live in now we do.
April 14, 2021
Jerry
The sell off of Council houses was a terrific policy which gave people who would have struggled to afford a home of their own
It created a larger property owning population and reduced the chance of your socialist society ever existing.
I think your estate is a fantasy and is made up.
Wherever I travel in the UK, old decrepit former council estates are now incredibly improved by becoming either owner occupied or being managed by housing associations.
Your accusation that I blamed tenants for poor council quality estates is completely false.
I blame the managers of these estates ie the local authorities involved.
Tracy
So you agree with me.
The housing benefit tenant that paid no rent is not the person who actually bought the house as you state by your examples and I note you give no reasons other than the ones I provided for why Council homes were sold for the ÂŁ7000 you claim.
April 15, 2021
@Peter2, “[RTB] created a larger property owning population and reduced the chance of your socialist society ever existing.”
The truth of the policy at last (?), delivered in true trolling style, how about you debate the problems caused, not just gloat. The only trouble is, I suspect it has actually increased the chances of a socialist Society, when due to the (unforeseen) consequence, a gross lack of affordable homes to either rent or buy now exists. Your attitude is akin to a certain Lady who, upon hearing the plebs had no bread, is alleged to have replied “Let them eat cake”…
Anyway, there was nothing “Socialist” about wanting decent, affordable, homes and services for all, unless you wish to call such people as Richard, George & Edward Cadbury “Socialist”.
April 15, 2021
Jerry
Very sad that you get often increasingly rude and personal if anyone dares to respond to you.
It says a lot about how popular the policy was that Labour during their 15 years in power never reversed the sales of these council properties.
April 16, 2021
Peter2, did a bit more investigating. The HA actually only paid ÂŁ52.2m for 7,200 homes, 38 shops and 1200 garages. 19 years later they now only own 6100 homes today they’re saying 6200 (100 appeared this week), they promised to spend ÂŁ67m in 5 years and ÂŁ300m over 30 years, 19 years in they claim to have spent ÂŁ100m nowhere near where it should be (ÂŁ267m by now) and the shops are in a real state. There is no one to oversee this obviously.
Most housing associations say their goal is “to provide quality, affordable and sustainable housing and associated services for people in housing need whilst protecting the long-term viability of the Association”. It seems to me it is more about protecting the people working in the Association and their pensions. Where is the development of new properties? How much did they get for the 1200 homes they sold? Why weren’t new homes and flats built? Why weren’t the shops done up? Why wasnt the promised spending met? Why aren’t the conservative councillors wanting election all over this? Because no-one truly cares about these estates, their shops, garages, and the state of their areas, once in a year, once has the grass and hedges been cut and that’s only because the election is next month and they’re racing around covering up.
April 12, 2021
Why not have instituted this shared ownership scheme then… state could have taken half the profits while upkeep was in the hands of the owner/tenant?
April 12, 2021
@Lifelogic,
All this is THEORY / IDEOLOGY but from the perspective of right.
If we want to improve economy, long-term and deeply, then that will only really happen though EDUCATION, ARTS, MEDIA. Where people adopt Protestant work ethic, sense of responsibility for self and family and country, patriotism, love of arts which improves creativity – key in entrepreneurship and industry. And so on. By returning to Judaeo-Christian values and spirit (and to the best of Greco-Roman world) that gave us the hugely successful Quakers in business, Edmund Burke, Bach, Sir Isaac Newton, Sir Christopher Wren, Oxford, Cambridge, Parliament, the Renaissance etc
April 12, 2021
Indeed back when overall government expenditure was below 10% or so of national income. Now nearly 50% and for what of real value?
April 13, 2021
@Lifelogic,
I agree with you that you get lousy value for your money. That isn’t my argument. My argument is that no way in today’s world are you going to get tax down to 20% or lower (and I want to see it down to 20% or lower) through politics (politics can only tweak here and there). You’re only going to get it down to 20% or lower through actually changing individuals – that they take responsibility for themselves, depending on their families (not on the state), have work ethic, sense of public duty and patriotism. And you do that through fundamentally through education, media and the arts. Not easy. But that’s where the real challenge lies. I think.
April 12, 2021
@LL – Indeed all subsidies distort, their very existence while well meaning at the outset become the bedrock of massive corruption and distortion in trade. We have a tax system created in nineteenth century, where all trade was on a different basis. In this new evolving world it is no longer acceptable to keep, tweaking, compensating and generally mucking around the edges to redress the imbalances, when the whole thinking has to be removed. All tax should be on the basis of ability to paye and equal contribution to all
April 12, 2021
Also, people in private sector just as corrupt as people in public sector. Corruption (in particular greed) ruins long/term health of a business and economy. Has to be built on work ethic (like the successful Quakers in business).
Also lots of people incapable of working in private sector with all its pressures. If these people don’t work in public sector they will go on the dole (and depend more on NHS for mental and other health issues). Something like that. Blame Adam and Eve / loss of innocence of mankind whatever you believe the reason for that. But we have to work with this reality / burden and not ignore it at great peril.
April 12, 2021
True but in the private sector they do need to find willing customers prepared to pay! Not so for the state sector who just demand money with menaces.
April 12, 2021
Just a minor legal point, since when has greed been corruption Ed M ? I don’t think you would find yourself in a court over being greedy. But I do take on board your Guardian readers point of view that anyone who works hard and earns money should have it forcibly taken away, except those on the left of course who have properties Tuscany or Provence to maintain.
April 12, 2021
Mac,
I use the Guardian to light fires in the fireplace. I’m a Burkian Tory – true traditional Tory.
April 12, 2021
Mac,
Nothing wrong with making money (I love it) unless it turns one into a money-grabbing Scrooge (I can be a Scrooge – not proud of) . Scrooge is not legally coruupt but he is a busted flush, morally.
April 13, 2021
Also, please don’t be so black-and-white in your thinking which just leads to pigeon-holing people because they disagree with you.
Conservatives (which I strongly am) need maverick thinkers. Churchill was a maverick thinker. Entrepreneurs are maverick thinkers. Artists and poets are maverick thinkers.
April 13, 2021
I also like to consider myself Bohemian Conservative (as well as Burkian Conservative).
By Bohemian Conservative, I mean a Conservative who enjoys / loves The Arts, Travel and Adventure. I have lots of Conservative friends who work in The City of London (and for whom money is their servant as opposed to they being servants of slaves to money) but I have no time for nerds who spend all their time working, at the grindstone, with their noses in the trough. They need to get a life and enjoy all the things life has to offer – not just money / overly focused on money (absolutely essential as that is including for building up a healthy civilisation).
April 12, 2021
Conveniently forgetting your government increasing the rate of corporation tax, so reducing tax take. Of course made worse by the brazen u turn by Sunak who only a few years ago lambasted such a move. It is post dated so I hope âyouâ can make him see sense. If it happens I guess it will be spun as a greater than expected recovery in the economy.
And in other news, for all the anti green contributors who use current (no pun intended) technology as an excuse for denying the future, Royal Dutch Shell has announced the roll out of 5/7000 fast and super fast charging stations by 2025 and Scottish Power, the creation of a green hydrogen production factory.
Every day they are looking more curmudgeonly and out of touch.
April 12, 2021
Nig 1
Scottish Power owned by Ibderola a Spanish company. That is the difference. Forward thinking and planning. Still it is only right and proper that they do attempt projects like this considering the billions they have made out of the UK energy bill payers from the subsidies for all their wind turbines.
April 12, 2021
@turboterrier Correct, and there’s the problem the Spanish taxpayer will have its coffers topped up and UK exchequer where they make their money, rely on its wealth creation and consume all the taxpayer funded infrastructure gets zilch, nothing. Just Wealth removed.
April 12, 2021
Not at all, I am all for sensible innovation so long as it makes economic and practical sense âwithoutâ tax payer subsidy or idiotic market rigging by PPE and Lawyer politicians (with little understanding of reality) and often on the make. I am also in favour of sensible R&D. But rolling out duff, impractical, expensive, limited, intermittent and premature technology with government enforcement, tax payer grants, banning the old and various damaging market rigging is economic insanity.
CO2 is not pollution, it is a clean gas we breath out & vital for greening the planet and crops. A little more does far more good than harm anyway. It is perfectly clear that electric cars, over their life cycle, save little or no CO2 anyway all considered.
They did not ban horses when cars and tractors overtook them no need to if the new is better. Read the excellent – How Innovation Works: And Why It Flourishes in Freedom
Book by Matt Ridley
April 12, 2021
They didn’t ban horses but horses became obselete except for pleasure. Diesel and petrol on way out. Some new tech will come along far more efficient. Scientific progress. And we either try and embrace and CONTROL that or resist it but ironically end up being controlled by it (not literally but in sense the tech will become overly utilitarian turning us into robots / postmodernist, Brave-new-world zombies).
April 12, 2021
EdM, That’s precisely Lifelogic’s point – horses were not banned, because people voluntarily bought cars (and trucks). Making horses “obsolete” was the public’s choice. Similarly battery electric cars should compete with petrol cars on an even footing, without the government banning petrol cars and subsidising BEVs. Competition is fine – it’s the top down, authoritarian imposition which is the problem.
April 13, 2021
Exactly.
April 13, 2021
@Nick,
I am NOT challenging people who challenge the government over bad green policy. I welcome such comments.
What I don’t welcome though is those who oppose or undermine the general enterprise to try and move our economy away from diesel and petrol:
1) I’m sort of agnostic about Climate Change (I think Greta and the greenies are dangerous heretics who base their cause far more on emotion than science / data) but still believe there is some sort of important link between our economy and damage to the environment (which does NOT therefore mean we have to diminish our economy – another heresy – but rather tweak it a bit, using science).
2) Our economy is more vulnerable anyway in the long-term when we depend on diesel / petrol
So yes government and others getting it wrong. But overall, they’re on the right path, that we should be embracing the scientific enterprise to tweak our economy, using science (and alternative technologies to diesel / petrol), to keep our economy as strong as ever whilst protecting the environment at same time (those who think this balance isn’t possible are luddite heretics in my view – who don’t believe strongly enough just what technology can do).
And the main reason I support finding alternatives to diesel / petrol isn’t money / the economy or the environment (although these are very important to me) but the sheer ADVENTUROUS CHALLENGE / SPIRIT of doing so (my ultimate heroes aren’t money men / economists or environmentalists but the great explorers and inventors and entrepreneurs – those who enjoy challenges and being creative in finding solutions to them).
April 12, 2021
@LL – CO2 on this Planet Earth is around 4% of its make up. Always has been. You cannot create more CO2 just move it around. Then again đ remove the CO2 from the atmosphere kill of plant life and the vegetarians and were would we be?
April 12, 2021
0.04% actually. Do you work at Imperial College ?
April 12, 2021
Indeed plant, crop and tree food and the source of the oxygen we all breath.
April 12, 2021
LL – if it were thought that dung covered streets was destroying the planet very soon then horses would have been banned I suspect. Mr Ford could have advertised that but he was doing well anyway I suppose.
April 12, 2021
Probably shovelled up fairly quickly to fertilise the gardens or allotments.
April 12, 2021
Ducati Motorcycle VP of Global Sales explained that electric motorcycles arenât in the companyâs plans: âWill we produce an electric Ducati soon? No. An electric motorcycle cannot guarantee the pleasure, the range, the weight, etc., that Ducati riders expect. We are also looking carefully at synthetic fuel. Other brands in our group such as Porsche are looking at it and itâs something we are looking at in the medium term.â Source – https://electrek.co/
April 12, 2021
Sound sensible to me.
April 12, 2021
Fast charging with current technology wastes a lot of energy as heat and reduces battery life. Depreciation of car batteries is often over double the electricity stored per charge. So take ÂŁ4 of energy at the power station generate electricity with it and you get circa ÂŁ2 of electricity (after losses in generation & transmission into your battery, get perhaps only ÂŁ1.60 of this back out as electricity and your battery is then worth perhaps ÂŁ4.00 less due to increased depreciation and damage to it from this charge.
Total cost of your ÂŁ 1.60 of actual motive energy ÂŁ8 plus the interest to buy the ÂŁ30k to ÂŁ100k+ electric car.
April 12, 2021
Far worse still in cold weather when significant in car heating is needed too.
April 12, 2021
@LL – there is more to that, a battery powered car consumes power when idle, the battery is heated and cooled to maintain its ability to perform. So full charge today – go to it tomorrow and a lot has already gone – temperature outside regulated.
April 12, 2021
Indeed.
April 12, 2021
nota# That isn’t something I’ve ever seen. In recent times my EV has charged from roof panels then stayed on the drive for a week plus with no perceptual loss of charge – it doesn’t do any thermal management while it is deactivated.
April 13, 2021
@dixie , the need for brevity kept it short. If an EV’s battery gets too cold ‘frosty night’ or too ‘hot'(not usually a UK problem) while standing its life span is diminished. For that reason the major EV producers use the battery itself to keep it at a constant temperature and maintain its long term like expectancy.
April 14, 2021
@nota – this is not universally required or practiced. I am aware of problems with heat on charging in hotter climates requireing active thermal management but if cold weather is such a critical issue why are EVs so popular in Norway?
Where there are extreme conditions ICE vehicles require adaptation as well – in Canada they plug the ICE car in during winter to heat the engine so the same would be reasonable for an EV if it were needed wouldn’t it, why deplete the battery if the car is plugged in anyway?
April 12, 2021
More selective pseudo maths from LL, who chooses to ignore the ridiculously poor levels of efficiency of ICE vehicles. DoE estimates in 2018 estimate 77-82% of energy put into an EV moves it down the road, compared to the 12-30% of the energy in an ICE car. That makes ICE 3+ times more inefficient than an EV.
EV battery charging is managed specifically to avoid wasting energy, overheating and damaging the battery. Don’t confuse what your AA battery charger does with the more sophisticated EV systems.
As to depreciation, according to Drive Electric which leases many types of EVs, where an ICE car will typically lose 60% or so of it’s value in 3 years, popular EVs only lose closer to 40%.
Reply If an EV is using power generated from fossil fuels you need to add into the account the heat and energy losses at the power station and in transmission.
April 12, 2021
To reply:- exactly and with an electric car you also have depreciation of the short lived v. expensive batteries plus on the car. Also the government tax petrol so it is about 5 times what is should be. Wail until they tax electric cars to recover this loss of revenue.
April 13, 2021
@LL There is insufficient data on BEV battery lifetimes at the moment because so few have degraded so much or failed catastrophically enough to be exact. The current suggestion is 10 – 20 years with many at the high end and that is to 80%, not failure, when it would be repurposed and/or reconditioned or recycled.
My previous car was a Mercedes and it’s gearbox failed after 4 years requiring a very expensive rework, EV batteries are guaranteed for 7-8 years.
It is ironic you complain about tax returns to HMG – you appear to be a non-dom who minimises their tax returns very much more than many and engage in property development which allows low VAT and VAT reclaim.
Why are you begrudging others the opportunity to avoid a bit of tax? If that is your aim then there are so many other loopholes you could be chasing on behalf of HMG.
April 13, 2021
Dixie, I think you are very optimistic indeed on battery effective life with current technology. I am against high taxes as people and businesses invest and spend the money so much more effectively in general than governments do.
April 14, 2021
@LL which battery chemistry/technology? there are a range of chemistries which are developed to suite the application – an EV battery system is not the same as your phone or house battery and charging regime can have a significant effect on lifetime. If you have reasonable and realistic evidence to backup your negative hand waving then provide it.
I have a background in science and engineering with a career in R&D so am well aware of what it can take to get an idea to market, the sheer bloody hard work, pitfalls and above all time to be over-optimistic.
As is normal the chemistries and technologies are improving over time and as a customer and investor I have some influence over EV direction. Just how much influence do you think you have if you are not engaged in the market?
April 12, 2021
”High-Efficiency IC Engine Symposium preceding this weekâs WCX19 conference in Detroit, the lead researcher for a long-running, Delphi Technologies-directed program to maximize the thermal efficiency of gasoline engines said the latest developments show promise for delivering a production-ready gasoline engine that approaches 50% thermal efficiency” source – https://www.sae.org/news
This governments BAN is stopping this type of development !
April 13, 2021
Indeed.
April 13, 2021
@gc I don’t think batteries will ever be suited for long haul aircraft or ships but jet and marine turbines already exist and their efficiency is already up near 100%. After personal and passenger transport the remaining modes of transport would be rail and haulage. Rail has being electrified in places so could roll out more widely. Urban delivery vans are already available as EVs and that is set to grow extensively with Arrival and other manufacturers.
National haulage is an issue. I can see an approach that would exploit rail, robotics and urban delivery – after all Amazon has solved this problem. But this would not be applicable to a range of freight and you still need bulk haulage. So perhaps there is still a place for ICE or similar but you’d need an appropriate fuel and it likely won’t be oil based.
So the issue I see is not research into the efficiency of an HC fuelled ICE engine but into safe, economic replacement fuels for diesel and petrol.
April 13, 2021
@Reply So do a well to wheel comparison. I am not denying that there is wastage in generation and transmission to the wall or charger, but there are similar losses to power oil processing, refinement and delivery.
Also, you need to look at energy production, costs and management appropriate to the user – the costs, wastage and emissions are different in UK, Germany, Europe, different states in the USA. If your interest is CO2 emissions then you also need to figure that those are different in German power generation compared to the UK, for example.
Further, many BEV owners across Europe already use solar PV to charge their cars – no power station, costs or transmission wastage involved.
I agree with your observations that if the Government seriously wishes the country to succeed with it’s rapid deployment of Oil & Gas based alternatives then it needs to facilitate, publicise, fund, increase and accelerate preparations across the board.
April 13, 2021
Once the ICE petrol & diesel ban is in place all develop with cease
April 14, 2021
If the rule is being carbon neutral then improving the efficiency of an ICE does not qualify as an improvement. Instead you need to find a way to produce the HC fuel in a carbon neutral way, eg from captured CO2. The viability of this approach then depends on how much such HC fuel can be produced and at what cost.
April 12, 2021
Nig1
Absolutely no problem or objections with green solutions being driven by technology evolution, the problem is when it is imposed upon us at great cost by politicians in a panic before sensible, workable and cost effective solutions are available.
April 12, 2021
It isnât being imposed on you. You do not have to buy a new car.
And electric cars already work perfectly well for millions of people around the world.
When your petrol car dies if you donât want an electric car you can walk instead. Easy.
April 12, 2021
They work for millions of RICH people around the world Andy. Like you. Check you privilege.
April 12, 2021
Back to the Stone Age, even before horses.
April 12, 2021
Andy – my water taps work perfectly, as EV cars do, and always on so I love to see them working 24 hours a day pouring out water into the street. Some people say that is a waste but like you I don’t see it.
April 12, 2021
Andy
Just wait until the Euro 7 emissions regulations come out at the end of 2021, you may be walking as well !.
It would appear that proper research has now found that Hybrids actually put out more pollution than standard ICE vehicles in practice..
The motor industry it would appear is holding its hands up in horror at the consultative report, first diesel was promoted, then Hybrids, now electric, but no plans for installing charging systems.
Customer left without a clue what the future holds, who would purchase new car now, unless you simply have to !
April 12, 2021
Andy, If you want or need a new car then, with the ban on petrol and diesel new cars from 2030, battery electric cars are being imposed. That’s what a government ban means.
April 12, 2021
Alan Jutson
Brilliant entry Alan.
We don’t deny anything we just want to see that our money is being used cost effectively.
April 12, 2021
@Alan Jutson
It looks to me as though the actions taken by politicians are forcing the development of the solutions. Without the impetus imparted by the government I donât think oil companies would be putting in charging points and building offshore wind farms etc.
April 12, 2021
Agree – Youâre come to the crux of the matter â choice and transparency
April 12, 2021
How fast is a “super fast” charge @Nig1?
April 12, 2021
That depends on how much charge you need. If you only need a handful of miles itâs a few minutes, if you need 300 a super charger may take half an hour.
But, and this is the point, youâll likely rarely need them because when you have an electric car you use it in a different way. You do not âfill it upâ in the way you do with a petrol car – where you go to a garage once a week or once a fortnight or whatever.
Instead, with an electric car, you plug it in to recharge it at home – probably overnight. You might plug it in at work too. For the vast majority of drivers the vast majority of the time that is plenty. Youâll rarely visit a need to visit a recharging station.
If you are making a much longer journey of several hundred miles – which most of us do rarely – you will need to stop for longer. But, frankly, if you are travelling that far for safety reasons you should stop for longer anyway.
I have a friend who drives 80 miles each way to get to work everyday. Heâs just changed to an electric car and says his fuel bills have plummeted. Heâs saving a fortune. He charges the car at home – and thatâs more than enough for his 160 mile return journey. Though he often does a small top up at work just in case he gets stuck in a traffic jam on the motorway on his way home. Itâs actually made his journey quicker as he used to have to stop to fill up en route every few days and now he never has to.
April 13, 2021
But that does not apply to all, to many I agree but not to all so electric can not be the only type of vehicle on offer. Especially as the world’s resources can not sustain it.
Fast charge is still too slow.
I can see a case for hybrid if the economics work but not for pure electric. Leave the whole thing to market choice.
April 13, 2021
”charges the car at home”
2/3s of homes in UK are not suitable i.e terrace or flat !
April 12, 2021
as fast as the shortest queue…mark my words there will be long queues.
April 12, 2021
Increasing corporation tax is in line with WEF thinking and again shows that we really haven’t left the EU. Sunak has pencilled in the increase to maintain the level aying field with Brussels. Notwithstanding that Ireland, Luxembourg etc are all tax havens, he wants to demonstrate he is a good European.
We should be cutting corporation tax to encourage investment but then again we have a socialist government
April 13, 2021
I think you’ll find that the reason for increasing Corporation Tax is to recover some of the money spent on the pandemic, not to fall in with Brussels. If they are so good at maintaining a level playing field, the why have they let the Republic of Ireland get away with it for so long?
April 12, 2021
Royal Dutch Shell are trying protect their business from the green nutters in government who would otherwise bankrupt them. According to your theory, the Bolshevik coup d’etat was also welcomed by the Russian people as the ‘modern world’. The world will continue to take wrong turnings whilst malevolent individuals hiding behind the curtain are not contained.
April 12, 2021
Still at least the dire Biden is against Vaccine Passports unlike Boris.
April 12, 2021
I thought he had only indicated that he was against US citizens having to carry credentials. Lots of room for interpretation there – in combination with a centralised database…
April 12, 2021
Dear Lifelogic–Are you still so sure as you were that herd immunity was reached well back last year? Moving on, using the misleading term “Passport” in this context does nobody any favours. A simple Certificate of having had the jab could be used when and where deeemed necessary sometimes compulsory, sometimes not, which seems wholely to the good to me.
April 12, 2021
Indeed range in cold weather can halve. Best take your ski gear too, lest your battery goes flat in a snow drift. A flask of coffee perhaps too.
April 12, 2021
Yes it had been reached in some areas for the weather conditions at that time. Why else did it fall away so rapidly in say London it was doing before lockdown We had more second wave than I expected, mainly in low infection earlier areas probably due to the colder weather, variants and more indoor activity.
April 12, 2021
Or we could trust people. In reality, concern should only be needed for those vulnerable people who have been recommended not to be vaccinated. We are moving to very low levels of prevalence as the vaccines take effect, and herd immunity looks to be not far off.
April 12, 2021
Meanwhile it is being reported that Google and Apple have banned the latest version of the Government’s smartphone Track and Trace software on the grounds that it would send the Government a list of every place that you have visited, and they don’t want their technology used for surveillance. Perhaps the anti-vaxx-passport cavalry are on the horizon.
April 12, 2021
Do not turn the app on any more, know too many people who have had false alarms, ask Kier Starmer !.
The app takes no notice of solid brick walls, hence if your next door neighbour is positive you are regarded as too close not to be positive either..
Happened to a family member who had to self isolate for 12 days without any pay because their next door neighbour had a positive covid test their phones were 10 ft away from each other, but with a dividing party wall between them !
April 13, 2021
Google maps seems to know wherever I have been – Google is happy to track my location but not happy for the government to.
Turn off the location tracker until needed for directions. Then turn it back off.
April 12, 2021
Let’s stop pretending that the arguments against tax havens is a moral argument, it isn’t. Politicians ‘don’t do’ morality, they ‘do’ politics and contemporary politics is about expanding State power, upping State control and maximising tax revenues to expand politicised public spending that tries to secure a political advantage for the incumbent party or in Labour’s and the Democrats Party’s case, finance the construction and expansion of their client State or sub-government
I would expand the tax haven philosophy to regional areas in the UK and then smash Labour’s client state into the dirt. The public sector would be exposed to a revolution of efficiency and the unions defenestrated. Conflict would be embraced not avoided in the way we see today from the post-Tory party.
April 12, 2021
DOM
Great first paragraph.
April 12, 2021
+1
April 12, 2021
There are few things less moral than taxing people at absurdly high levels then pissing the cash down the drain as most governments do. Certainly in the UK anyway. The people who made the money will invest or spend it so much more efficiently in general. At least 2 times as efficiently I estimate & often 1000+ times. Much of what government does costs money to do positive harm after all.
April 12, 2021
Maybe the EU will be bringing into line its tax havens such as Monaco and Eire ?
April 12, 2021
don’t hold your breath !
April 12, 2021
Monaco isnât in the EU.
April 12, 2021
@ Andy
Monaco is a part of the EU customs territory through an agreement with France, and is administered as part of France. San Marino and Andorra are in a customs union with the bloc. Liechtenstein, as a member of the EEA, is within the European Single Market and applies certain EU laws
April 12, 2021
Monaco is still not in the EU.
April 13, 2021
Andy
I did not say Monaco is an EU member state.
I said Monaco is “its” tax haven.
As I am sure you know “its” means more than merely being a member state.
April 12, 2021
Hence their high vaccination rate.
April 12, 2021
Technically not but- Through its special relationship with France, Monaco is part of the EU customs territory and located within the external borders of the Schengen area. The 2003 Trade agreement with Monaco covers the field of medical products, cosmetics and medical devices.
April 12, 2021
@Oldwulf, not forgetting Liechtenstein and Holland. Is the EU a trading block or a Country
April 12, 2021
Liechtenstein is not in the EU either.
April 12, 2021
It has been a successful trading block for many countries – and superb against UK.
April 12, 2021
And also Holland, with its extensive network of double tax treaties and dividend mixer companies that have made it a choice stepping stone location for fiscally efficient international transfers.
The gap between the espoused values of the Evil Empire and its values as applied remains huge.
April 12, 2021
@0ldwulf
Let us not forget Luxembourg and The Netherlands. A program on the box recently about tax evasion and avoidance showed a street of houses in The Netherlands some of which had hundreds of brass signs outside indicating that the house was the registered office of many City of London firms including hedge funds etc.
April 12, 2021
That fault of the UK Gov. for having such absurdly high and complex tax rates. Businesses have to compete or they go bust/or get taken over. They have to compete on taxation levels as well as the other things.
April 12, 2021
There are 14 companies for each of the 36,000 inhabitants of the British Virgin Islands, and about 100,000 companies registered in the Cayman Islands for 66,138 inhabitants. The actual number of companies registered in the Bahamas appears almost impossible to figure out as the government there appears very shy about this question. About 60,000 companies registered in Gibraltar (a bit more than two per inhabitant, arenât the Gibraltarians full of corporate spirit?). What is clear is that these four places are all British Overseas Territories.
And could it be that Sir John after the previous smokescreen on lobbying is now setting one on tax havens?
April 12, 2021
Is this the Hefner that thinks burning wood to generate electricity gives more KWHs per ton of CO2 than Coal, Oil, Gas … Wrong on all counts.
April 12, 2021
But the European Union clearly leaves to its members the near-complete sovereignty in tax matters – as in most things – that your claims can only mean, doesn’t it?
So what was all this “75% of our laws are made in Brussels” nonsense?
Just that, wasn’t it?
I’d read a list of member countries too.
April 12, 2021
Thereâs no such thing as ânear-complete sovereignty â.
April 12, 2021
You mean the old ”level playing field”…….thats only works one-way
April 12, 2021
The answer to your last question is, when the Irish vote in the USA wilts into insignificance.
Tax is a product of the business activity of a nation and its individuals, hopefully to pay for the services that most cannot provide for themselves. Defence, Health, Education come to mind. I have long argued that government does far too much, a lot of it very badly, and that shifting the responsibility for much of an individuals life to government is a debilitating thing for that individual. Particularly if government has given them equality of opportunity in education, access to health services when needed, and freedom from the ill intent of foreign powers.
Government is however a top heavy, ever growing spiders web of self generating activity that would never stand financial scrutiny. They do it badly at great cost.
The answer is much lower in most cases, and elimination in others, of the current tax burden. Seven tax tomes I believe. Reducing tax would be the greatest incentive to increased business activity that this government could provide. It could actually increase the size of the take. Remember Biden is only in situ for another three and a half years so let him upset all his home grown successes. Do what is right and sensible for the UK, it is now in our hands.
April 12, 2021
I never tire of pointing out that our host, when interviewed by Andrew Neill some years ago, had to agree that the âtax codeâ had increased from a notional 13000 A4 pages to 18000 A4 pages under that dynamic âtax simplificationâ duo Cameron and Osborne.
April 12, 2021
+1
April 12, 2021
Well we were paying millions for Osborneâs Office of Tax Simplification I assume they all got good bonuses.
April 12, 2021
Corporation tax is the wrong tax to focus on; it’s only paid on profits. More damaging is employer’s national insurance, paid regardless of whether the company is doing well or badly. You’d think employment was something the government would encourage, rather than stifle with tax.
The annual investment allowance is a help. The trouble is that a large investment can take several years to save up for, all the time the business is paying out corporation tax that can’t be claimed back.
April 12, 2021
Correct – it should be based on turnover
April 12, 2021
Even if you make a loss ?
April 12, 2021
I am an advocate of Nigel Lawson corporate tax model
âI have long argued that in the modern world corporation tax has had its day as a major source of tax revenue. It needs to be a much lesser tax, bolstered by a tax on corporate sales.
While multinationals can artificially shift profits to whatever tax jurisdictions they choose, sales are where they are, and canât be shifted.â
April 13, 2021
glen
We already have a tax based on turnover, it’s called VAT.
April 13, 2021
VAT is not considered a corporation or business tax as companies pay the difference between their VAT purchase and selling costs (some break even) itâs the end consumer that pays the full VAT â and thatâs joe public
April 13, 2021
That will not really work very well in most situations. It also deters them from investing in the UK as you cannot offset the investments against tax. It might work for large int. comps like Amazon who pay little UK CT due to their complex structures and profit shifting perhaps.
April 12, 2021
Good morning.
The reason why I believe Ireland is somehow ignored is to do with the voter base in the USA – Irish Catholic and Democrat. Both voters and donors.
There is no race to the bottom, many Middle east countries have very low tax rates. This is due to oil wealth artificially keeping them low. There are also countries with minimal social and care programs. More self reliance and community spirit.
Government once again seeing a non existent problem and reaching for a solution that will just further their power reach. PM Alexander Johnson will sell the UK and our overseas territories down the river, mark my words.
April 12, 2021
In support of tax havens and the individual, the first thing a lottery winner should consider is buying residence in one. Protection from the greed of large national governments for the individual and his family is a result.
There are alternative ways to take a fair contribution from tax haven incorporated multinationals, now , the Biden era might be the time to do it.
April 12, 2021
Indeed current taxes in the UK, CT, IHT, IT, CGT, NI, SDLT etc. can easily talk 90%+ of a rich personal assets off them in say 20 years. Unless you spend all your time and money on tax planning and even then often ( as they keep moving the goal posts).
April 12, 2021
If Ireland is that successful with its low tax rate, then the answer is to follow it rather than condem it.
April 12, 2021
Stephen Reay, ++++1, but too obvious for ‘too smart by half’ politicians, or maybe there’s nothing in it for them. My cynicism increases almost daily with never any counter to suggest that I should reappraise my decreasing faith in the quality of our ‘leaders’.
Are there any Ministers to be seen who might qualify to be considered ‘Statesmen’?
I’m less than a quarter way into my reading of Tobias Smollett’s translation of “Don Quixote de la Mancha”.
The parallels with this government by deluded leader, his Dulcinea, and inadequate colleagues are so amazingly drawn. The false foes, imaginary enemies, ‘Giants’ to be slain, armies in battle (flocks of sheep), his good lady to be worshipped, and the sophistry of explanations as to why a defeat or non-event should be celebrated as a Glorious Victory, are so amusingly similar.
Sketch writers, cartoonists, satirists, there is such a wealth of incompetence and pretension to lampoon and deride, cabals of fools and charlatans to ridicule out of the public eye so as to let better sense eventually prevail. Be bold, be less respectful, and good will come through.
April 12, 2021
If you’ve read Cervantes through, please don’t spoil it for me, especially if the Good Don confronts and defeats a Pandemic with his sword and lance, and with a basin as his helmet.
Is Mask! Mask! Mask! the invulnerable helmet of Mambrino?
April 12, 2021
+1
April 12, 2021
With those GDP figures one has to wonder why Eire bothers with the EU… But of course such success is not just because of their low corporate tax rates attracting US companies, there were very good reason why the Freeport located at Shannon became so successful at attracting inward investment from the US, in doing so becoming a gateway to the EU. Geography was kind to Eire, whilst many US Corps also have (had) offices elsewhere in the EU too, so it isn’t all about tax.
April 12, 2021
and the attraction of when they joined – oh! the luxury of the EU handouts….
April 12, 2021
@Fred.H; Best we British not go down that path, someone might end up asking why Eire needed such investment, after all GB&NI did not, yet Eire had been a part of GB&NI only 50 years previous…
April 12, 2021
well jerry — explain to thousands of Belfast residents that they never needed investment.
I would start running if I were you!
April 12, 2021
He’s talking abut investment transfers from the EU. As a part of the UK, NI has been a net contributor to the EU, not a net recipient like the ROI.
April 12, 2021
No, it’s all about being a modern, enlightened, outward-looking, peaceable, popular country.
April 12, 2021
@MiC; No member State of the EU is allowed to be “outward-looking”, that luxury is reserved for the eurocrats in Brussels, when was the last time Eire signed a FTA agreement in her own name, they even need to kowtow to the wishes of the EU for chunks of their domestic and foreign policies. When will you finally grasp the real facts of EU membership, many would have more respect for your views if you did, there is no shame in wanting a politically federated Europe, it’s (been) the constant lying from europhiles such as yourself that the majority of the electorate object to.
Most of the (southern) Irish I know have either got out of Eire or plan to, either using their EU citizenship or their duel British citizenship entitlement!
April 12, 2021
Itâs this stupid idea of doing stuff globally… Iâm sure it wonât work in anyoneâs favour, least of all ours.
April 12, 2021
âGloballyâ indeed.
We can forget about tax havens. Big corporations arrange their affairs via lawyers and accountants so that profits are deemed to occur in places where there is minimal taxation on them.
If there are âdifficultiesâ in the U.K. then HMRC are known to have been generous towards several large corporations including one large telecoms operator.
The game is rigged.
âWe donât pay taxes; only the little people pay taxesâ Leona Helmsley
April 12, 2021
Sharon
It does work, it works in favour of the corporates and big incs.
April 12, 2021
To answer your question JR
It would seem Mr Biden is proud of his Irish History, although I sure that could not possibly be the reason ?
April 12, 2021
a new found pride when votes need to be counted.
April 12, 2021
+1
April 12, 2021
Alan Jutson
“It would seem Mr Biden is proud of his Irish History, although I sure that could not possibly be the reason ?”
Of course Mr Biden is unbiased and does not allow his ancestry to influence his political decisions or perspective on NI / Eire relationship.
April 12, 2021
Yes , what a pity your Government took the populist route and hiked taxes on Corporations, we will be safe form Mr Bidens wrath up at 25%. I wonder how many British Companies will be eyeing our business friendly neighbour with envy in many ways.
Come to the UK , get a worse return on your investment and the worst access to Europe in Europe !
Great message
April 12, 2021
Following on from your “where will we work” blog on Saturday many “employees” will choose to move to tax havens to work remotely going forward. They will also choose to be paid in crypto currencies which are untraceable government.
This will significantly reduce all government’s tax raising ability, they will have to come for the corporations. President Biden’s move is an acknowledgment of this and is the first pawn moved in a long game of consolidating global policy so all countries can still collect taxes and spend them (profligately?)
April 12, 2021
Although I go along with the general message as put forward by JR, is the present Irish advantage not because of the low tax regime but because taxes are LOWER than elsewhere? There may be a merit if all countries were to reduce taxes to the same levels but the beneficial effect would be not as great as that Ireland presently enjoys.
April 12, 2021
Frankly Ireland outstrips the UK in start-up territory too. Local Enterprise Boards and a central Enterprise Agency providing grants for capital equipment in competitive funds, a High Potential Start Up scheme. In the UK you just get a “consultant” telling you what you already knew.
Property rents (outside Dublin) 50% of UK rates.
A propensity to “keep local” – if overseas corporates invest, they ensure local suppliers are locked in so those corporates won’t up-sticks at the whisper of a change in regime.
Ireland , of course, have a stick to beat the EU with now– if CT rates and their tax base is threatened, they already have a neighbour who has left their scheme. There will be a row if the Biden plan comes to anything.
April 12, 2021
Of course offsetting CT with capital allowances is meaningless in cashflow terms for start-ups with no profit. Somebody should remind Sunak of the basics.
April 12, 2021
John is conflating yet again.
There are tax jurisdictions which are completely opaque, where criminals hide their wealth and their income. This is what the US and the opposition parties oppose – and what right-minded decent person would not? So don’t worry, that doesn’t include many Tories evidently.
Then there are normal, open nations in the European Union, which use the extensive sovereignty which that gives over taxation matters in ways which suit their economies from their perspective.
The two have little to do with each other, but never let an opportunity to smear go to waste eh?
April 12, 2021
it has served you and boy wonder very well so far!
April 12, 2021
What are you talking about. Biden wants a global minimum corp tax of 21%. The rate in Ireland is 12.5%. So if it goes ahead Ireland will have to increase its ct rate from 12.5% to 21%.
Because Ireland is a small country and attracts large companies due to its low tax rate, its gdp figures are absurdly distorted by inclusion of company turnover which wouldnât otherwise be there. In reality incomes are lower on average in Ireland than the U.K. (& many other European countries mentioned above).
April 12, 2021
I thought there was supposed to be a level playing field.
April 12, 2021
Yes there is, but “market” does not mean the same as “country”.
Think about it.
State taxes vary in the US between states too, quite widely.
April 12, 2021
MiC
“State taxes vary in the US between states too, quite widely.”
Indeed so Martin, more than people realise.
California, for example, is not somewhwere I would choose to live.
April 13, 2021
I should think that the good Californians are mightily relieved.
April 12, 2021
All markets are ‘level’ just that some markets are more ‘level’ than others
April 12, 2021
This “conservative” government is a very high tax, interventionist, centralising, power hungry party that has turned Britain into what amounts to a totalitarian dictatorship. That they have been able to do so I admit is entirely due to the supine, cow like acceptance from the British people. Boris is actually able to describe himself as a libertariian without howls of laughter. However you’d better find some new selling points for the Tory party as the low tax, freedom promoting BS you’ve been pushing for the last few decades is getting to be a joke.
April 12, 2021
Absolutely. Do you all remember his ‘rush’ to get it done in the first December? Even in the January we started to think ‘hmmm the white hot action man has cooled off’. And since then the electorate has been played as early dementia suffering, and fools. One rule for mates, quite different for the people. He obviously has found we are all mushrooms, living in the dark and fed bullshit.
Sheep is what we are, surrounded by teeth baring sheepdogs at every corner.
Just remember what has happened when the dogs are called off….get running fast as you can.
April 12, 2021
On the other hand Biden’s minimum 21% corporation tax rate looks like a great idea compared with Sunak’s 25% plan.
Just on that, when Sunak increases the corproration tax rate from 19% to 25% will he reduce the basic rate of dividend tax from 7.5% to 1.5% to compensate ? Thought not. That dividend tax was sold to us on the basis that it was to compensate for the lower corporation tax rate for people obtaining their income from dividends – that tax dodge people with personal service companies use to convert all their income into dividends. However, as a pensioner whose income comes from investment dividends it seems I’ll be punished too – not only will the companises I invest in have less money for dividends but I’ll continue to pay tax on them giving a total equivalent tax level of 32.5%.
April 12, 2021
Good morning Sir John
You highlight the ‘Great Reset’ problem Joe Biden has no place in telling the World what is the right tax rate for their domain.
There is an ‘However’, any eternity wishing to profit from a Domain/Country should accept they are to contribute to tax the revenue stream of that Domain/Country on an equal basis as the indigenous contributors. As it stands tax regimes encourage what is in all intense and purpose the stripping one Country of its wealth and wealth creation to permit the ‘freeloading’ and growth wealth of a few.
The UK’s tax system as it stands encourages and promotes the ethos of the little guy always subsidises the big guy. All entities operating in the UK consume the same taxpayer infrastructure, the same wealth of its individuals, the same taxpayer health and education of the Country. Its nuts to suggest the captive small guy has to fund the ‘freeloaders’ – that is not even open and free trade.
There are lots of distortions in the tax system with never ending tweak’s to virtual signal the Government is being fair. All it has done is create a tax system not fit for purpose. In part the root of the problem goes to so-called ‘business taxes’ and the way they are calculated and administered. In a bygone age it may have been appropriate, cross border trading was not a regular pass time. Nowadays cross border trading is the way of life and should be encourage – but old style ‘business taxes’ just don’t work. The regulators and politicians, I guess through lobbying, dance around the situation as it undermines the ever evolving status que of the big multi-national, it can no longer be avoided in the modern world, tax has to relate to means and has to be contributed by all. That means the tax that’s most lobbied against, a turnover related tax is needed. Its actually the simplest, least cumbersome way for everyone to fund/contribute equally to those areas they achieve their wealth from. They system now encourages the rape of one area to the benefit of a few.
April 12, 2021
As always ‘One Size’ does not fit all. Competition is about competition for all, you always get winners and losers. A level playing field is not about the amounts but the deliberate corrupting distortions – no matter how well meaning a subsidy or grant always becomes the taxpayer funding to create a advantage to a few at the expense of others.
April 12, 2021
Sir John “means the state collects more from business as a proportion of its tax revenue than many countries who charge much higher rates of tax”
I believe you others and most of us here know without question the easiest way to increase tax income is to make it tolerable. No one is going to avoid contributing if its equal and affordable to all.
April 12, 2021
You cannot imagine Biden taking the Irish Republic to task over its tax policy because it is so advantageous to US Corporations and the Irish state of which Biden is such a partisan supporter. The UK is one of the biggest losers here – because of our close proximity and common language, the US internet-based companies book most of their profits from the UK in Ireland.
We will have to rely on the EU to make the running here. It was always obvious that that idiot Varadkar’s slavish adherence to Brussels policy over Brexit was only ever going to be repaid by the imposition of a highly damaging EU common corporate tax policy. If he had had any sense he would have only offered his cooperation on punishing the UK over Brexit in return for an undertaking on tax policy. That’s the kind of grubby deal that Brussels has historically been so good at. Instead, he damaged his own country by going along with the punishment beating that was the NI Protocol.
The UK has been a good friend to the Irish Republic, even lending them money during the financial crisis, but all that was ignored in favour of supporting Brussels over Brexit. Varadkar’s premiership did immense damage to UK-Irish relations but it could have been so very different.
April 12, 2021
The more acute risk than offered by President Joe comes to the Republic of Ireland from the Evil Empire itself surely, with the professed wish to equalize tax rates across the Union.
April 12, 2021
When the “Panama Papers ” hit the headlines it was nauseating to see how many rich people scrambled to keep their names out of the news. Got to keep the right choice of face to the public, all thinking they are wonderful – and not the two faced ****s they really are. Footballers – celebrities and even politicians. Look after their own cash – and make the poor stay poor.
April 12, 2021
This government like all others before believe its there duty to maximise the tax revenue take similar to the reign of tutorsâŠ.our system hasnât changed
Iâd question why some taxes even existâŠ.if its there just to max revenue then itâs a robin hood tax
The whole tax book and system need a revamp including the EUs VAT
April 12, 2021
glen cullen
Indeed so.
I happen to think that paying tax should be optional depending on whether the payee believes he / she is getting value for money.
April 12, 2021
One of the Brexit upsides we were promised is the end of corporate tax dodging by the likes of Amazon et al.
These companies use Ireland and Luxembourg as a means to avoid tax on profits made in the UK, and of course those countries benefit from tax paid on purchases in the UK.
The EU Pillar, Freedom of Establishment, enables this practice. But we left the EU and are still awaiting the upsides we were promised. We don’t need Biden to to do this.
So when is it going to be stopped?
April 12, 2021
Track and trace.
An update to England and Wales’s contact tracing app has been blocked for breaking the terms of an agreement made with Apple and Google. The plan had been to ask users to upload logs of venue check-ins – carried out via poster barcode scans – if they tested positive for the virus. This could be used to warn others. The update had been timed to coincide with the relaxation of lockdown rules.
But the two firms had explicitly banned such a function from the start.
Under the terms that all health authorities signed up to in order to use Apple and Google’s privacy-centric contact-tracing tech, they had to agree not to collect any location data via the software.
As a result, Apple and Google refused to make the update available for download from their app stores last week, and have instead kept the old version live.
What fool agreed to have no Location data available to inform anyone contacted?
An elderly neighbour never left home, then on one occasion felt they needed shopping, went to Sainsburys 7.30 am – very few customers – one checkout. T&T informed him to stay home for whatever time – very worried…..If they had indicated time and place stamp he would have relaxed.
April 12, 2021
more subjects for future diary?
The government is expected to announce an investigation into David Cameron’s efforts to lobby ministers on behalf of finance firm Greensill Capital. The former prime minister has been criticised for contacting ministers via text on behalf of the company, which collapsed in March. The probe is likely to be independent, carried out on behalf of the Cabinet Office, the BBC understands.
Mr Cameron has said he has not broken any codes of conduct or lobbying rules.
But in a statement on Sunday weeks after reports of his lobbying emerged, the former Tory leader said that he should have contacted ministers through “formal” channels.
It is not yet known who will carry out the inquiry or how wide its scope will be – with further details likely to emerge in the next few hours.
April 12, 2021
“The probe is likely to be independent”
Ha ha Oh my Gawd lmao !
When I heard that I almost did me sell a wrong un.
Independent inquiry….pffftt! no such thing.
April 13, 2021
still asking around for someone with a bucket of whitewash?
April 13, 2021
+1
April 12, 2021
From our perspective in the U.K. it might be positive as regulated limits become targets, so an agreed min of 21% will then become the target and we wonât see the possible hike to 25%.
Better of course would be competition. Simpler flatter taxes work best and the countries which offer them will attract more investment.
April 12, 2021
The surefire way to increase employment is to abolish corporation tax.
April 12, 2021
Alasdair
“The surefire way to increase employment is to abolish corporation tax.”
Or stop trading with China, shut it down and bring the jobs home. Which would also result in significant decrease of climate load.
April 12, 2021
Perhaps this is something Boris could do to make life a bit sweeter in Northern Ireland give them a corporation tax rate of 12.5% to become more competitive with their near neighbour.
April 12, 2021
Now there’s an original idea. But Boris needs to stop interfering with the replenishment of NI’s supermarket shelves first.
April 12, 2021
a-tracy
A better thing Johnson could do is tell the EU to do one and keep it’s nose out of British sovereign territory.
……but that would require guts.
April 12, 2021
Irish GDP is a pretty meaningless figure, partly because of their low tax rates, but also because they count asset transfers to Ireland as if they were domestic production. Ireland even counts as its own “exports” movements of production between branches of companies that have decided, for tax reasons, to domicile in Ireland, but don’t do any physical production there.
There are probably good reasons to reduce corporate taxation, but Ireland, which has a partly fictional economy that consists of companies moving assets around, isn’t one of those reasons.
April 12, 2021
Ireland is a much smaller country with a much lower income.
I do not agree with Tax Havens they should be outlawed and I hope they soon are. Tax Havens are usually islands who depend on larger countries for military security e.g UK and USA if the UK and USA threatened to end the security I am sure they would quickly end the Tax Havens.
Generally speaking Corporation Tax should be kept low as it helps employment.
I also think that lower paid should benefit from raising the tax threshold even higher and I support this.
I do not support the wealthy individuals and they should be subject to a wealth tax, and any assets they have in the UK should be taxed. There are many examples where wealthy individuals have creamed money off business to the detriment of the work force.
Passports for the wealthy should be means tested and subject to substantial higher charges, if they leave the country then they need to decide if they want a UK passport costing many thousands of pounds.
Property is an interesting one and as a designer I know the industry is moving more to apartments in Urban areas and I support social housing modeled on Austria. With in meetings I attend this is a common topic of conversation and my guess is that within 20 years apartments will be the accepted Urban street scape.
April 13, 2021
David. With respects, what you propose is fundamentally unfair. Progressive taxation is one thing, but should be tempered; if too fierce or if manifestly unfair its victims act to avoid it. Over-tax the wealthy and they go elsewhere. Wealth taxes have been tried and abandoned because they do not work.
April 13, 2021
Walt, – Fair point, its probably all about getting the balance right
April 13, 2021
Depends what you mean by “Tax Havens” David.
I suspect you mean any country that dares to set low tax rates and therefore attracts trade, business and investment.
I also suspect you would prefer some unelected world government body which could just make any nation that has low taxation illegal and impose penalties or even military action to invade and take over.
You argue for a bleak future where your Big State imposes high taxation, there is only social housing in the form of high rise State supplied flats and it would cost thousands for a passport just to be able to leave.
It looks like a replica of the failed USSR to me.
April 14, 2021
David, you say ‘I do not support the wealthy individuals and they should be subject to a wealth tax, and any assets they have in the UK should be taxed.’
What is your level of the wealthy individual? Do you include people with guaranteed defined-benefit pensions whose pots would cost a private individual ÂŁ1m to buy? Just to give you a guide (ÂŁ1m pot buys you an annual income at 65 of around ÂŁ37,500pa, it would be interesting to know how many public sector/ex nationalised industries would be on this annual income or less if they choose to retire earlier than 65).
Does your wealthy individual mean anyone in the 1% bracket which Credit Suisse calculated was anyone with any assets over above ÂŁ600,000 (not sure if that includes guaranteed pension pot value)?
This ‘lack of support’ you have for wealthy business owners, does it extend to people like W Galen Wilson who died today having taken his families retail business and expanded it significantly creating thousands and thousands of jobs, in the 1970 turning around his family supermarket chain in Canada and turning it into one of the largest food distributors in the Country. These great visionaries should be held up as role models, your way would steal his wealth away and stop him expanding, building, creating and creating wealth and work for multitudes of others.
April 14, 2021
David is a socialist.
What you have said Tracy is exactly what he wants to happen.
Equality of poverty.
April 12, 2021
Several sources today have a story saying that the UK and EU are coming up with a practical way of administering the NIP.
Not before time, of course, but it shows that the real winners in the Brexit debate are those who predicted that the arrangement we finally finish up with would be structured around economic mutual interest.
The UK has a strong interest in observing NI’s current decision to remain a part of the UK – as indeed they are required to, under the GFA – while the EU has an interest in minimizing Brexit-related damage to the ROI, which they pretty certainly promised to do to get a common EU position on the WA and FTA.
So what we end up with, unless something goes wrong at the last minute, is “what works” rather than exactly what is written down. The “strict letter of EU law” is an empty slogan, and a bit of face-saving.
April 12, 2021
a bit like ‘ EU to ban all export of Oxford vaccinations to UK’.
Hollow words that simply get our backs up.
Reality steps in and all quiet on the western front.
April 12, 2021
Oh? And are we going to pretend that didn’t happen? Orwell must be laughing.
April 13, 2021
no ban to UK was carried out, in fact the hoard due to go to the poorer countries via COVAX WAS.
Italy took rogue action to keep 29m doses back from release.
April 12, 2021
As long as there are trillionaires there will be tax havens
April 12, 2021
‘The USA takes on Tax Havens’
Hmm.
In that case Biden will have to take on the big incs, I don’t see it happening.
April 12, 2021
Just received an email telling me my electricity price will rise by 9.2% in May. No worries, my 2.4% rise in my meagre pension will cover that.
April 13, 2021
you could try turning the lights off more often. After all when Andy and his growing band of TESLA mates plug in you may have to get used to not having ‘lecky’.
April 13, 2021
We do not need the experimental jab or the passport.
April 14, 2021
I might be wrong but the arguments here about defending Petrol Cars seems like Dinosaur Capitalism.
Surely the argument is over? Surely the best capitalist argument now is how to persuade government to do more to help Tech companies and entrepreneurs turn the UK into the leading manufacturer of Electric Cars and of related High Tech in general?
For example, Telegraph reports:
‘British firm cracks electric car motor conundrum – AEM’s ‘switched reluctance motors’ can operate without permanent magnets which means they don’t need rare earth metals’