From that report explaining why the 50% income tax rate should be reduced, page 8:
The impact on economic growth
2.16 In addition to their impact on the level of GDP, changes in tax rates can have an impact on economic growth. Other things equal, high tax rates in the UK make its tax system less competitive and make it a less attractive place to start, finance and grow a business...
2.17 The relationship between tax and growth has been extensively studied in research undertaken by the OECD*. Their analysis suggests that corporate taxes are the most harmful type of tax for economic growth, followed by personal income taxes and then consumption taxes, with taxes on immovable property being the least harmful tax.**
* OECD (2010) Tax policy reform and economic growth
** HM Treasury were a bit sneaky there: what the OECD actually said was "with recurrent taxes on immovable property being the least harmful." There is a huge difference between taxes on purchases/sales of land and buildings such as Stamp Duty Land Tax (bad taxes) and annual taxes on ownership of land and buildings like Business Rates (good taxes), but hey.
Thursday, 22 March 2012
HM Treasury makes surprise move over to The Dark Side
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2 comments:
Stamp Duty isn't a tax on the purchase or sale of land and buildings, it's a tax for changing an entry on the Land Registry. Which really isn't necessary if you have a half decent accountant :-)
M: "Stamp Duty isn't a tax on the purchase or sale of land and buildings, it's a tax for changing an entry on the Land Registry."
Not true. The trigger point for SDLT is once anything more than a deposit has been paid and/or the purchaser has taken possession. Changing the registry is irrelevant for tax purposes.
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