Last week witnessed a damning report on the UK tax system and the damaging impact it is having on attracting investment into Britain. Today a new report by accounting firm UHY Hacker Young paints a similarly grim picture on the overall size of the tax burden. This adds further weight... Read more...
We are delighted to present a new book, The EU in a Nutshell: Everything you wanted to know about the European Union but didn't know who to ask. Coming as the Eurozone crisis continues to bite, this is the only book to give an insight into what really goes on... Read more...
Writing for the Daily Telegraph Comment Matthew Sinclair argues that simplifying the tax system is the answer to restoring the legitimacy of the tax system.For a long time Anglo-Saxons have had a stereotype of the feckless southern European who doesn’t pay his taxes. But with fresh stories of British tax... Read more...
All of the talk on taxes this week has been about Jimmy Carr, Take That and notions of fairness. But we shouldn't forget that staggeringly high taxes could have huge economic costs, too. Unless significant changes are made, we’ll continue to suffer from lost investment and lost jobs. A report... Read more...
For the third day running, The Times has splashed on elaborate tax avoidance schemes used by the rich. Today’s story (£) is about investors using special schemes designed to support the film industry. Yesterday’s (£) was about Icebreaker, a music and intellectual property development company connected with Take That crooner... Read more...
Essex County Council staff spent more than £5.1 million on their taxpayer funded credit cards in just over two years. In their on-going “war on waste” the Brentwood Gazette have delved into the credit card statements of their county council and uncovered a massive number of profligate purchases, all at... Read more...
Politicians, including Prime Minister David Cameron, are lining up to criticise celebrities who have been exposed for using tax avoidance schemes. This is yet more evidence that we need a comprehensive overhaul of our tax system to close loopholes that allow avoidance. The Single Income Tax as proposed by the... Read more...
Today doctors are out on strike for the first time in over 35 years, protesting against proposed reforms to their generous pensions. It appears though that many of them are having second thoughts about the impact of the strike and the reasons behind it. Many more GP surgeries are expected... Read more...
Hugo Rifkind - a columnist and leader writer for the Times - wrote this morning about how a proportionate income tax could simplify the tax system and help stop the tax dodging which increasingly means we can't trust everyone is paying their fair share. That doesn't mean though, that he... Read more...
The TaxPayers’ Alliance has repeatedly called for greater spending transparency on spending on Government Procurement Cards (GPCs). We have already exposed the credit card spending of Whitehall departments and various quangos such as the OFT, the British Council and the Child Support Agency. But now, data for two more quangos... Read more...
Matthew Sinclair on the irony of those calling for an end to subsidies for fossil fuels are themselves subsidised by taxpayers.The European Union has been handing out grants to environmentalist groups since 1997. New research by the Taxpayers’ Alliance today shows just how much the different groups have received. The European Environmental Bureau, an... Read more...
Bath may be home to one of the country’s top universities, but there is disquiet over news that the University of Bath’s Vice-Chancellor has had her salary increased by more than twice the rate of the rest of her staff. A local union report has revealed that Professor Glynis Breakwell’s... Read more...
Our friends at the National Taxpayers Union in the US have this week published a paper considering the legitimacy of the current membership of the G20, which is of course meeting in Mexico at the moment. The authors, Alex M. Brill and James K. Glassman, assert that the G20 currently... Read more...
Attempts by Lancashire County Council to make essential savings have stalled. Just three months after moving into a newly refurbished building, costing £250,000, the offices have been abandoned.More than 400 Lancashire County Council employees were moved to the building in an attempt to cut costs and bring smaller, fragmented teams... Read more...
We can today reveal the extent of the £75 million of taxpayer funding for environmentalist campaigns in the UK and the European Union since 1997. British taxpayers have paid for around £7.5 million of this budget. This money is spent on political campaigning which results in taxpayers paying twice: once for the... Read more...
Matthew Sinclair writes for the Spectator's Coffee House blog on the campaign to end fossil fuel subsidies. The environmental movement hasn’t responded well to the setbacks it has suffered seen since the failure of the Copenhagen climate conference. The #endfossilfuelsubsidies campaign — trending worldwide on Twitter this morning — is... Read more...
An attempt by the Scottish government to reduce its bureaucracy may have a sting in the tail, Audit Scotland has revealed. The plans, begun back in 2007, aimed at simplifying public services and were designed to save taxpayers £63 million. They could in fact have cost an eye-watering £80 million... Read more...
With the recent pasty tax, caravan tax and charity tax u-turns you would think that there were no more ill-advised tax alterations set to implement from this year’s Budget. Unfortunately there is still one left: the levy of VAT on improvement, alteration and restoration works to listed buildings; aptly dubbed... Read more...
Yet again, local government is coming up with taxes that penalise our hard pressed businesses just when they don’t need it. While other councils have passed on the idea, Bristol City Council (BCC) has taken up the Workplace Parking Levy (WPL) with enthusiasm. They want to charge £1 a day... Read more...
In a speech this week the boss of IATA – the organisation that represents most of the world’s airlines – confirmed that the UK has the highest air passenger taxes in the world . Tony Tyler, the IATA’s director general, said the fact that it had been cut in Northern Ireland... Read more...
I remember working in an office where stickers were placed underneath the light switches reminding staff to turn off the lights if they didn't need to be on. Managers would also occasionally turn them off when they felt it was still light enough to work.Energy consumption was also reduced by... Read more...
Argentine politicians have been scathing in their contempt for Falkland Islanders' opinions about their future and their right to self-determination. Despite this, and repeated other violations of international law, Britain still does not use its votes at the World Bank to block our money backing loans to Argentina, explains Rory... Read more...
Nigel Adams MP (Con, Selby and Ainsty) today backed the TaxPayers' Alliance (TPA) campaign and used Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) to call for the British Government to oppose any further World Bank loans to Argentina. Pressure is building for David Cameron to act, as Andrew Rosindell MP (Con, Romford) tabled... Read more...
Over 6,000 members of the public have already signed our e-petition demanding that the Government oppose new World Bank loans to Argentina since it launched last Friday. If you haven't already done so, simply go to www.StopFundingArgentina.org to add your support - and please encourage friends to do the same.Meanwhile,... Read more...