Why is Labour so quiet and timid about the super-rich, those on more than £3,000 a week, and the ultra-rich, the FTSE-100 bosses who now average $.4 million a year remuneration, or to put in more readily used terms, £86,000 a week? There are, in fact, three good reasons why Labour should open up a […]
Posts under ‘Taxation’
Osborne hits hubris, big time
Dec 6th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.Osborne’s performance today in the mis-named Autumn Statement (which might be better titled Pummelling the Opposition, with occasional fleeting references to the economy) was a mix between a fragging operation beloved of the Bullingdon Club and a fantasy presentation of how he was going to produce a budget surplus by 2018 (or was that 2030, […]
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International crackdown on tax avoidance gathers momentum, but UK drags its heels
Nov 29th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.The EU Commission has today outlined its attack on the artificial hybrid structures used by multinational companies to reduce or entirely avoid their tax liabilities. Three companies – Tate & Lyle (sugar), FirstGroup (transport) and Linde (industrial gases) were specified as saving as much as $150m a year by lending billions of dollars to their […]
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Why reward with a tax break employers who pay below the Living Wage?
Nov 5th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.Getting a living wage established of £8.55 an hour in London and £7.45 elsewhere – regarded as the minimum needed now to meet the rising cost of living in the UK – is an admirable aspiration. The persons who will particularly gain are the quarter of all employed women who are paid below this […]
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How our taxpayer-rescued banks helped INEOS escape UK taxes
Oct 29th, 2013 by Jeremy Smith.So billionaire Jim Ratcliffe seems to have succeeded in forcing through huge reductions in the pay and conditions of his Grangemouth workforce. See the excellent recent Open Democracy article by Robin McAlpine for the background story. But Ineos, the company of which Ratcliffe is the main owner, represents much that is most destructive and arrogant about modern […]
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The politics of the marriage tax breaks
Sep 29th, 2013 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.The Conservatives are a desperate party led by a desperate man. The stars are not lining up for an election victory in 2015, despite a summer of awful headlines for the Labour leader; and Dave finds himself with little room for manoeuvre now Ed has pledged action on the issues that matter outside the Westminster circus. To grab the […]
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Review: The State We Need by Michael Meacher
Sep 20th, 2013 by Patrick Diamond.The State We Need: Keys to the Renaissance of Britain by Michael Meacher can be ordered here at £14 including postage Michael Meacher has produced a readable and thought-provoking volume which raises a host of issues that ought to be widely debated and aired on the radical left of centre in British politics. The book […]
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Osborne, hypocrite over tax avoidance, caught out
Sep 15th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.Osborne likes to tell us he’s keen on cracking down on tax avoidance. Ha, ha. He’s allowed multinationals with a finance subsidiary in a tax haven (and 98% of the FTSE-100 have one) to pay corporation tax at just 5.5% instead of the current 23% – meaning you needn’t worry about tax avoidance because I’m […]
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This is how to enforce tax transparency & prevent tax avoidance
Sep 10th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.After 4 hours of massive Tory filibustering to prevent my bill being reached, I finally got a brief chance to make the case for ending tax avoidance and enforcing tax transparency on the richest individuals and the biggest companies: Michael Meacher (Oldham West and Royton, Labour) Tax avoidance and financial transparency, or perhaps I should say […]
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A bill to challenge tax avoidance
Sep 6th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.Despite the budget deficit not reducing over the last three years, the government has still not tackled the huge black hole of tax avoidance and evasion. That’s why I am promoting a bill to ensure that the tax liabilities both of the wealthiest individuals and the biggest corporations are made public and that the beneficial […]
