This morning on the Today Programme, John McDonnell reiterated Labour’s ambition to hike the tax on those earning over £70,000 this morning, in an attempt to squeeze at least £6.4 billion out of them. What they haven’t accounted for is the change in behaviour that such a tax on the more successful would cause…
Hiking tax on the most mobile earners does not make economic sense. Currently, despite Brexit, the UK is extending its lead as Europe’s ‘tech unicorn’ capital, and last year more venture capital for tech came to London than the whole of France, Spain, Ireland and Germany combined. Labour’s anti-success policy would end the UK’s status as a good place to bring your business.
This policy could be even more damaging and unproductive than former French President Francois Hollande’s ‘megatax’ on the rich, the now reversed hike saw French competitiveness fall and professional emigration rise, making London the sixth largest French city in the world. Brexit isn’t causing an exodus of the job creators, but there’s no doubt that a Labour government would…
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…
Non-doms, hedge fund managers, entrepreneurs and investors are still welcome in Ireland:
If Red Ed does get elected on May 7 and the socialist terror comes to Britain, Ireland will welcome the huddled elite, yearning to breathe free…