Tax
The tax-and-spend Tories
When you ask a government minister why something hasn’t happened, you get a one-word answer: ‘Covid’. It has become the…
How do the Tories stop the rise of an ever-bigger state?
When Gordon Brown raised National Insurance in 2002 to put more money into the health service, it was seen as…
What the NHS pay rise says about Boris Johnson's priorities
Well, that didn’t take long. Two days ago, a leaked report revealed that the government was considering using a national insurance…
A minimum corporation tax is nothing to celebrate
So is this what the new era of global co-operation looks like? The EU has agreed to delay the introduction…
Suddenly used cars are hot property
Companies should willingly pay tax wherever they generate profits — this column has long argued — because it’s fair they…
How many Lilibets are there in the world?
Rare Lili Other than the new royal baby, is there anyone in the world formally called Lilibet? — There are…
Will the G7 tax deal survive?
What are the chances of the G7’s agreement on a minimum rate of corporation tax actually coming into effect? While…
Which countries still haven’t had a single case of Covid?
French lessons France’s former president Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced to three years in jail, with two of them suspended, for…
The case for keeping business taxes low
Why should business pay tax at all? That’s a provocative but forlorn question to ask in Budget week. Business pays…
If taxes must rise, Sunak should pick on private equity instead
It’s not axiomatic that taxes must rise to pay for the pandemic, if you seriously believe the surge in growth,…
The Barrett hearings show the Democrats have wised up since Kavanaugh
There was nothing original about Amy Coney Barrett’s appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee other than her incessant professions of…
Do you want a Trump or Biden economy?
It would be great if the President was an icon of virtue and goodness, but he isn’t. As much as…
Who first committed ‘cultural appropriation’?
Culture clashes The pop star Adele was accused of ‘cultural appropriation’ for adopting a Jamaican hairstyle for the online Notting…
Who will pay for a mega-spending Biden administration?
Over the last month, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has proposed roughly $4 trillion in new tax hikes. That is…
Can Scotland afford independence?
How would an independent Scotland have fared during the pandemic? We found out this week on the annual release of…
Italy owes Wales reparations for the wrongs of the Roman Empire
There’s talk of reparations in the air. Lobbyists from around the world are demanding sin-payments from former colonial powers. Let…
Labour’s wealth tax proposal is deeply flawed
Will Labour ever stop pushing for punitive taxation? Not content with gifting the Conservatives an 80 seat majority in December,…
Switzerland is now an enemy of the rich
Gstaad The staff are back and all is well, as they used to say long ago in faraway places. The…
Can anyone lay a glove on Donald Trump?
Donald Trump just got another spot of good news. The Supreme Court has cut him a break by taking up…
The RMT strike is a demonstration of what to expect in a Corbyn-McDonnell regime
It’s unusual for a Governor of the Bank of England to announce his next job before Downing Street has named…
What happened to the other Dukes of York?
Old Dukes of York Prince Andrew is the 14th royal to have held the title Duke of York (three were…
It’s easy to sex up the business of paying tax
To fund the war against Napoleon in 1813, Princess Marianne of Prussia invented an ingenious tax-raising scheme. Wealthy Prussians were…
The super rich aren’t all bad – some even pay their taxes
Paying tax — which many of us have been doing this week before HMRC’s 31 January deadline — is a…
The slow death of the public-sector pension
Hedge funds have already spotted it: Jim Mellon’s latest book, Juvenescence, reviews the new science that will lengthen our lives…
Why my name didn’t appear in the Panama Papers
My, my, the rich are under attack everywhere, and I thank God the Panama Papers didn’t include the name of…
