“There are a number of people who have said [the non-dom ban] could raise hundreds of millions,” Labour’s Shadow Exchequer Secretary Shabana Mahmood told the Daily Politics. Asked to name just one, she could not. Funnily enough, Guido had the same problem with the Labour press office as well:
@labourpress watched it, thanks. Ed said "independent experts" (plural) had "found a way to do it". Who? Can we have names (plural) please.
— Guido Fawkes (@GuidoFawkes) April 8, 2015
Two hours later and no reply. The only ‘expert’ making such a claim is a Labour member and even he has admitted he got it wrong. #nondomnishambles…
Ed Balls told Radio 5 this morning that he would abolish Non Dom status:
He was backed up in a car crash outing by his deputy Shabana Mahmood on the Daily Politics.
Yet Labour are briefing that they are not abolishing and there will be temporary status for some.
So which is it?
This morning on the Today Programme Ed Balls namechecked the blog of Jolyon Maugham a tax specialist QC, he estimated that Labour’s change to the non-dom tax rules would bring in an extra billion. Ed Balls referred to him again later as a “tax expert”:
Just now in the Q & A after his speech Ed Miliband also referred to Jolyon Maugham as an “independent expert” – he’s actually a Labour Party stalwart.
Well other independent experts have taken him to task on Twitter for a basic error, most countries have double taxation treaties (DTCs). If you pay tax in one country on your earnings, you can’t be taxed again in another jurisdiction – the UK has over 100 such treaties. On Twitter Jolyon has conceded “I accept DTCs could have some impact. There’s plainly some uncertainty about the numbers.” When you take this into account the net tax take will be nowhere near the billion claimed…
Did Ed Balls once p*ss on Norman Smith’s chips or something?
From January:
“If you abolish the whole status it will end up costing Britain money because some people will leave the country.”
UPDATE:
Correction: Earlier we mistakenly stated @labourpress had stopped bringing a spoon to a knife fight. This was an error, and we apologise.
— Guido Fawkes (@GuidoFawkes) April 8, 2015
Having spent the last four months bringing a spoon to a knife fight, it seems Labour’s press operation has finally woken up to the fact there is war on. Yesterday’s flurry of activity over Labour’s NHS letter leaking out was a nice distraction technique from the much bigger bomb dropped on the front page of this morning’s Guardian. But are Labour really as united on the policy as today’s coordinated TV and Tweetathon would suggest?
"If you abolish the whole status it will end up costing Britain money because some people will leave the country" @edballsmp 3/4
— Daragh Corcoran (@DaraghCorcoran) January 9, 2015
Here is what Ed Balls told the BBC just a couple of months ago about tinkering with non dom status:
‘If you abolish the whole status it will end up costing Britain money because some people will leave the country.’
Yet in a political stunt – that makes no sense economically and will raise little more than the reforms to shotgun licencing – three months later, Ed Balls is out pushing the line…
