The Observer asked five left of centre thinkers about what they wanted from the PBR. My contribution was:
RICHARD MURPHY
Founder, Tax Justice Network
There are six things to do if the government is to fill its fiscal hole: tackle tax avoidance by individuals by restricting the total tax relief those earning more than £100,000 a year can claim to £5,000 a year; tackle tax avoidance by companies with a general anti-avoidance principle so that any scheme mainly designed to save tax is ignored when calculating tax due; tackle international tax abuse by companies by introducing country-by-country reporting, which means they must show where they declare their profits and don't pay tax; demand tax information exchange agreements from all tax havens and that they automatically supply information on all UK residents holding accounts there within five years; end the domicile rule, making all those who benefit from living in the UK pay tax on the same footing; introduce taxes on financial transactions.
The other asked were Neal Lawson of Compass, Brendan Barber of the TUC, Ann Pettifor of Advocacy International and the Green New Deal and Karel Williams, Director, Centre for Research on Socio Cultural Change, Manchester University. It’s my pleasure to be working with them all.
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And to operate the general anti avoidance regime, we would need to employ an army of civil servants who would tie every company in the land up in red tape. This would ultimately lead to either the tax rate for companies having to increase, or more companies relocating out of the UK. It would not work, and this is why it has been considered and discounted by both Conservative and Labour Governments.
Not necessarily, Freeborn. With a GAAR we could get rid of a lot of the complex anti-avoidance legislation which hampers legitimate activity and make the whole system much simpler and cheaper to run. We might not need the armies of accountants either.
Get rid of the avoidance and everyone can enjoy lower tax rates, rather than just the few. But there’s the rub, there are those who do very nicely out of the current soi-disant system and they have very loud voices and very fat wallets….