Tim Worstall

Tax avoidance is pernicious: it means that people and institutions ‘get round’ their obligation to pay tax in ways which tax law did not anticipate and did not intend. Tax avoidance, both corporate and personal, is estimated to cost the UK at least £25 billion a year. Since some effects cannot readily be measured, the [...]

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Of course the right will argue that higher taxes will just lead to higher rates of avoidance or the flight of talent. Research by theWork Foundation busts the latter myth.60 Interesting. What’s that research then? This. So, is it a paper about the effect of marginal tax rates on effort? On the temptations of income [...]

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Well, I certainly agree with this one: ‘Our long-term objective would be to replace the 10% band with a personal allowance worth £13,500, so that no-one below the poverty line pays any Income Tax’ Given that us neo-liberal bastards at the ASI have been chuntering on about this for years of course I would agree [...]

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A delightful little typo: Gross income pain in all taxes (%) That’s their heading for “gross income paid in all taxes” as a percentage of household income by decile.

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You can tell that this isn’t going to work out well, can’t you? Compass, the centre-left pressure group, has again come up with the new thinking that Labour’s high command seems to lack. <a href=”http://www.compassonline.org.uk/news/item.asp?n=5924″ title=”In Place of Cuts – whose authors include Howard Reed, the former chief economist of the Institute for Public Policy [...]

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This really is rather cute: It is important to understand the significance of this. Scientists are not politicians. They are not used to communicating publicly. They trust in their objectivity, the objectivity of their peers, and the rigour of only citing work published in learned journals. They will have private views, but are very used [...]

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It’s an interesting phrase, isn’t it? Lord Turner, a former director general of the CBI, attacked the current head of the employers’ body for refusing to concede that parts of the City were “socially useless”. Now chairman of the Financial Services Authority, Turner criticised CBI director general Richard Lambert for arguing that politicians or regulators [...]

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see more Epic Fails

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Richard Tol, here. Read it all. The essential point to take away. We’re already doing too much about climate change.

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Watch this video and buy me beer.

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At the ASI. How the stimulus bill has raised US unemployment.

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The family of Jean Charles de Menezes are to receive reduced compensation because they are so poor. The limited financial support they could have received from the Brazilian electrician – shot dead by police marksmen – will also count against them. Harsh because it seems so: why should the poor receive less compensation than the [...]

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Can you wear false eyelashes and still be a feminist? Yes. Next question?

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Horrible: In the first half of this year, 1,175 people died in pits across China, a fall of 18.4% compared with the same period last year, the state administration of coal mine safety said. That’s more than have been killed by all nuclear power plant accidents everywhere, everywhen. Yes, including Chernobyl.

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Like Labour under Brown, idiot leaders mistook a bubble for their own skill. Ambrose EP……strong but correct.

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All children should be taught in mixed-ability classes to boost standards and self-esteem among all students, according to a report. Uhn hunh……where does this come from? The study, by Teach First, which recruits top graduates as trainee teachers in tough inner-city schools, Hmm….and of course “top graduates” who go off and work in inner city [...]

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Two men in a car containing the device drove through a barrier at Clarendon Dock, near the offices, at about 7pm on Saturday. The car then appeared to catch fire and the two men ran off. The attack was blamed on dissident Republicans, who are also thought to have been involved in a gunfight with [...]

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Here.

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But in breaking news, the Torygraph has supplied the void with “The flooding in Cumbria is part of a pattern of weather which shows that global warming is occurring faster than anyone expected, says Geoffrey Lean.” Oh lordy, that last one is pretty awful. I was hoping not to have to see it, but now [...]

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At the ASI. On a new paper about how immigration makes us richer. Of course, in between my writing it and it being published, Chris Dillow alighted upon the same paper.

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