{"id":10400,"date":"2011-06-09T17:45:28","date_gmt":"2011-06-09T16:45:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=10400"},"modified":"2011-06-09T17:45:28","modified_gmt":"2011-06-09T16:45:28","slug":"cameron-supports-corporation-tax-cut-for-northern-ireland-a-triumph-for-dogma-over-reason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2011\/06\/09\/cameron-supports-corporation-tax-cut-for-northern-ireland-a-triumph-for-dogma-over-reason\/","title":{"rendered":"Cameron supports corporation tax cut for Northern Ireland: a triumph for dogma over reason"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to the Belfast Telegraph<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister has signalled his willingness to consider a corporation tax cut in Northern Ireland<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As I have argued time and again this is the triumph of dogma over reason.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0background\u00a0to my reasoning is in the paper I wrote for the TUC and Irish\u00a0Congress\u00a0of Trade Unions, here<\/a>. The reasons for objecting are numerous. Let me highlight just three.<\/p>\n

First, the chance that such a tax rate could be introduced in Northern Ireland without falling foul of EU law is remote in the extreme. And if it proved to be illegal the damage \u00a0to the Northern Ireland economy \u00a0as a result of the consequent uncertainty could be considerable.<\/p>\n

Second, the Republic\u2019s low tax offering is not just a low tax rate \u2014 it\u2019s also a low tax base. The tax collected by any state is the tax base multiplied by the tax rate \u2014 and because both are low in the Republic then many companies operate there and pay little or no tax at all. This is something Northern Ireland could not emulate unless it were, in effect, to cede from the UK for tax purposes.<\/p>\n

But doing that would have massive implications. First, the rest of the UK would then need to put up massive tax barriers to trade with Northern Ireland to prevent artificial tax abuse by companies really located in England, Scotland or Wales, That would be enormously harmful in terms of administrative burden to doing trade with Northern Ireland. And second, if it is assumed that the reduced tax rate will bring in increased taxes in Northern Ireland (and those proposing this idea seem to think that it will \u2014 although there is no evidence at all that the Laffer curve on which they base this idea actually exists) then that assumed increase in tax revenue has to be deducted from the subsidy now given to Northern Ireland so that it does not get a double dose of regional aid under EU law. The risk is that if the assumption of increased tax is wrong \u2014 as I think not just likely but absolutely certain if the Republic\u2019s experience is copied \u2014 then the funds available for public services in Northern Ireland will be cut severely. As a result this folly, promoted by the tax accountants of Northern Ireland for the benefit of their clients will impose real and lasting cost on ordinary people throughout Northern Ireland. And that\u2019s a risk no one should take.<\/p>\n

Which is why I \u00a0and the trade union movement on both sides of the Irish Sea oppose this move.<\/p>\n

And\u00a0almost\u00a0certainly\u00a0why Cameron\u00a0supports\u00a0it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to the Belfast Telegraph: The Prime Minister has signalled his willingness to consider a corporation tax cut in Northern Ireland As I have argued
 Read the full article…<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[96,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservatives","category-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10400\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}