Accountancy Age reported this today:
The UK has the second lowest corporate tax burdens in the G8, research has shown.
A study by UHY Hacker Young, released today, shows that only Russia imposes lighter corporation tax on businesses. It also has the lowest business tax burden among the major European economies, with only Estonia, Romania, Ireland and occasionally the Netherlands imposing lower rates.
The research looked at how much tax is paid by businesses with pre-tax profits of $100,000, $1m and $100m. The UK had the 16th highest burden out of 21 countries for $100,000 profit, 14th for $1m profit and 12th for $100m profit.
Roy Maugham, tax partner at UHY Hacker Young, said: "The perception that the UK is a high tax jurisdiction for business is now something of a myth. There has been a lot of discussion about UK-resident businesses moving overseas - and this has happened - but the reality is that the UK is a considerably more welcoming business environment than most other major economies.
Now shall we stop all these silly discussions about lowering business tax any further, and abandon talk of companies moving offshore and instead talk about real issues in the real economy?
Hat tip: Richard Brooks
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Ah but Richard, you have to understand that, to many “entrepreneurs”, or “highly talented people”, any tax rate > 0% is unacceptably high.
I recently heard just such an example on Radio 4 of the sort of self-styled “entrepreneur” that holds this sort of view. Was he an inventor, or a manufacturer, or some other innovator? No, you may be as astonished to hear as I was that he was merely a landlord of multiple cheap residential properties who thought the country was indebted to him because he was “a wealth generating businessman who employs people”.
Some rich people and economists will not be happy until not merely do the wealthy suffer no taxes at all but in fact receive cash paid tax credits funded by the worse-off to reward the wealthy for the debt we owe to them for the jobs they allege are created solely by their “skills and talent”.
Excuse me while I put my fingers down my throat.