Economists Urge Scotland to Vote No......

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

lostinrates wrote: »

It could potentially make a huge difference to the amount individuals pay in tax.

Perhaps on an individual basis, but not in aggregate. And changes to tax code could compensate low earning individuals.

Overall any increase in individual tax should be offset by an equivalent change in the price we pay for goods and services.

The concept that corporations pay tax is a fantasy.

Their customers pay that tax as it's included in the price of everything we buy.

michaels

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Perhaps on an individual basis, but not in aggregate. And changes to tax code could compensate low earning individuals.

Overall any increase in individual tax should be offset by an equivalent change in the price we pay for goods and services.

The concept that corporations pay tax is a fantasy.

Their customers pay that tax as it's included in the price of everything we buy.

Isn't there an issue over corporation tax on foreign earnings though?

michaels

hugoshavez wrote: »

Nothing of this magnitude appears to be on the horizon, for Scotland or anywhere else.

Of course I realise you may be interested in the question academically.

It is hard to say though, unless these issues are unpicked to England, Scotland etc level then how can MP's voting powers also be unpicked?

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

michaels wrote: »

Isn't there an issue over corporation tax on foreign earnings though?

Theoretically that change is offset by the tax paid to foreign corporations in the UK.

If we went to nil corporate tax, many/most would domicile here.

CLAPTON

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Perhaps on an individual basis, but not in aggregate. And changes to tax code could compensate low earning individuals.

Overall any increase in individual tax should be offset by an equivalent change in the price we pay for goods and services.

The concept that corporations pay tax is a fantasy.

Their customers pay that tax as it's included in the price of everything we buy.

of course, all costs and taxes are paid by consumers whether they be 'corporation taxes', green levies, affordable housing and infrastructure levies, VAT, NI minimum / living wages, H&S costs etc.


however, the distribution of these taxes is very important as it can distort resource allocation, enable/encourage tax avoidance etc which can make us all poorer.


the rush to re-engineer the UK will be full of badly thought out taxes and allowances which will be worse than before.


Gordon Brown will be single mindedly trying to engineer maximum financial advantage for Scotland so he can be a Scottish hero and who know : Gordon for first minister?


rUK beware.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

CLAPTON wrote: »

of course, all costs and taxes are paid by consumers whether they be 'corporation taxes', green levies, affordable housing and infrastructure levies, VAT, NI minimum / living wages, H&S costs etc..

Exactly.....

I do wish people would wake up and realise this.

Hitting up corporations for more tax, or complaining they don't pay enough, is exactly the same thing as asking for more money to be taken from your pocket as a consumer.

michaels

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Exactly.....

I do wish people would wake up and realise this.

Hitting up corporations for more tax, or complaining they don't pay enough, is exactly the same thing as asking for more money to be taken from your pocket as a consumer.

Heading rapidly off topic but I don't think as many want higher corporation taxes as want fair taxes so the likes of Starbucks can't use transfer pricing to unfairly compete against smaller UK only companies.

kabayiri

michaels wrote: »

Heading rapidly off topic but I don't think as many want higher corporation taxes as want fair taxes so the likes of Starbucks can't use transfer pricing to unfairly compete against smaller UK only companies.

The likes of Apple have been very inventive in minimising corporation tax, using technicalities in Irish and US law.

Now this sort of goes against the mantra of 'create a low tax economy and they will flock'. In the case of Apple and Eire, perhaps not the case.

Is a corporation sat on a cash mountain running to 10s of billions of dollars working in concert with the economies where many of its consumers reside?

We seem to have come a long way from the economic view James Stewart describes in Wonderful Life.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

michaels wrote: »

Heading rapidly off topic but I don't think as many want higher corporation taxes as want fair taxes so the likes of Starbucks can't use transfer pricing to unfairly compete against smaller UK only companies.

Which is exactly the same thing as saying I want the prices I pay for goods from Starbucks/Amazon/etc to go up. There will never be a level playing field here, if you raise taxes on some, then all will take advantage to maintain the pricing differential.

Consumers pay all taxes. It's that simple.

Consumers pay for all the taxes levelled on corporations through the price of their goods and services.

Some particularly ill-educated consumers seem to think that if corporations paid more then they would have to pay less.

That is a fallacy.

If you drive up the costs to companies, then the price of everything we pay for will rise. Tax is a cost to companies. There is no such thing as a 'free lunch'.

kabayiri

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Exactly.....

I do wish people would wake up and realise this.

Hitting up corporations for more tax, or complaining they don't pay enough, is exactly the same thing as asking for more money to be taken from your pocket as a consumer.

In some ways yes.

But pricing is a key regulator of consumerism. Are we saying we are really happy with the level of consumerism we have in the West?

On the flip side there are frequent complaints about our non-Green throwaway culture.

Higher prices would undoubtedly steer people towards service and repair to extend the life of their products. There was a time when every town had at least one electrical repair shop. Now the only option is usually consign to landfill.