Nominations for Taxcutter

Today we begin seeking nominations for the final third of the twelve Inaugural Conservative Movement Awards and if Hollywood has its 'message movies' these are our 'message awards'.

Tomorrow we'll be seeking nominations for outstanding contribution to the environment, then patriot of the year and then social justice.  Taken with today's Taxcutter award the four categories neatly underline the 'politics of and'.

Targeted tax relief is a key belief of ConservativeHome.  Low tax economies tend to be high growth economies.  It is morally right that people are rewarded for hard work and initiative by keeping a lion's share of their earnings.  And, as this incompetent Labour administration has shown, governments do not take good care of taxpayers' money.

In this awards category we are looking for political or thought leaders who make the moral, intellectual and practical case for lower taxation.  We are also open to awarding Conservative or other councils who have limited the tax burden on local people.  Your nominations and citations should be posted on the thread below please.

Comments

[Serf]

Nomination: Wat Tyler at Burning Our Money

Citation: By serving up a daily diet of waste, overspending and incompetence, he very ably demonstrates the massive potential for lower spending and lower taxes.

[Chad]

Well said Serf. I agree. The Taxpayers Alliance should be in the mix too for much the same reasons.

[Richard ROBINSON]

The Tax Payers' Alliance for the Bumper Book of Govenment Waste.

[Graeme Archer]

David James? I love that man. To be able to save the Dome with one hand, identify 496 trillion of your earth pounds of annual waste with the other, AND save all those goals, without recourse to a ponytail (so far as we know): a true polymath. Celebrating Mr James would also show the kids that we're with it, no?

[Jack Stone]

Personally I don`t think there should be any such award. Being know as the tax cutting party as done enormous damage to the party at the last three elections.We should be trying to lose that perception not trying to re-inforce it.
The more you talk of tax cuts the more you simply play into Labours hands.

[kingbongo]

Surely this is a cakewalk for the TPA, with the Bumper Book of Government Waste being a perfect blend of tragedy and comedy that even the Bard would admire.

[William Norton]

Jack Stone:Personally I don`t think there should be any such award. Being know as the tax cutting party as done enormous damage to the party at the last three elections.We should be trying to lose that perception not trying to re-inforce it.
The more you talk of tax cuts the more you simply play into Labours hands.

I had doubts myself, but this clinches it. The Award is a brilliant idea, and I support the nomination of Mr Wat Tyler who has consistently put the case for lower taxation through a tireless campaign involving wit, inventiveness and factual accuracy.

[James Hellyer]

I had doubts myself, but this clinches it.

Is this the Jack Stone test? Identify Jack's preferred course of action, and then do the opposite?

[Yet Another Anon]

In this country there isn't a lot of intellectual thinking on the subject of taxation and strategies for smaller government - mostly some politicians seem to favour small cuts or favour some increases rather than saying here is a blueprint for the future state that will require x amount of money in taxation either greater or lesser than currently, I think a systematic approach is required to dismantle most of the labour market regulation and most non-essential areas of government rather than any kind of compromise tinkering.

[Rob Largan]

"Is this the Jack Stone test? Identify Jack's preferred course of action, and then do the opposite?"

It sounds to me like a good rule of thumb. Jack seems to forget at the last election how few people actually trusted us to cut taxes once in government. But dont let the truth get in the way of a good story, eh?

[johnC]

Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada. He proved that a Conservative Party can campaign on an clear and unapologetic tax-cutting agenda and win.

[Daniel Vince-Archer]

"Is this the Jack Stone test? Identify Jack's preferred course of action, and then do the opposite?"

Sounds good to me!

I'm not a devout follower of the tax cuts doctrine, but I would go along with the above nods towards Mike Denham and the Taxpayers' Alliance.

Failing that, and bearing in mind the Editor's earlier clarification that the nominees don't have to be from the Conservative Party, there's always Alex Salmond...

[Wat Tyler]

Guys... thank you for those kind comments. And I'm encouraged by Jack's fix on this.

Modesty naturally forbids, so I nominate the Taxpayers' Alliance- Matthew Elliott, James Frayne and the other guys are doing a great job in getting more airtime for this vital issue.

More power to their wossnames.

[Richard]

Could the Editor please put a disclaimer on the main page pointing out the Jack Stone is not a genuine Tory supporter but a UKIP supporter who tries to antagonise people? Evidence for this has been provided on several occasions, notably the link to the UKIP forum where a member called MikeUK admitted to this.

[Edward Lennox]

This has to go to Lord Forsyth of Drumlean. He is heading up the party's Tax Reform Commission and is continuing to make the ecomonic and moral cases for low taxation - his recent CPS lecture being just one appropriate citation.

[Chad]

Richard,
Just a suggestion, but I would love this site to require registration with a nominal fee of a couple of pounds. It would both help to fund the site and end the constant interruption from anonymous posters whether pro-Cameroon, UKIP etc.

As James Hellyer noted earlier, there is no valid reason for regular posters to hide their identities.

[UKipper]

MikeUK has his very own website.

[Rob Largan]

"Just a suggestion, but I would love this site to require registration with a nominal fee of a couple of pounds. It would both help to fund the site and end the constant interruption from anonymous posters whether pro-Cameroon, UKIP etc."

I seriously hope this doesnt happen. Keep debate free, some of us dont have many pounds to throw around.

[Matthew Sinclair]

Anonymous Cameron supporters?

Well... for the record: Matthew Sinclair, LSE Student, permament address in Hertfordshire, http://sinclairsmusings.blogspot.com

Suggestion just argues his side. I don't see any sign that he isn't genuine. Cameron is our leader, regardless of the activities of some pernicious UKIP supporters, supporting him is hardly cause for suspicion. I would expect some people want to be anonymous because they're worried about being associated with some of the views which unfortunately do get expresssed on this site. That they are free to do so is important.

[Lambo]

Nomination: Ivan Miklos, Slovakian Minister of Finance

Reason: Brought in a Flat Tax with a lower rate, simpler system, and higher personal allowances that has boosted growth, increased compliance, took Slovakian poor out of the tax net, and increased tax revenues.

[Martin Smith]

Miklos seconded...according to the accounts of one of his minions, it seems that Slovakia's tax revenues have gone up way before you would normally expect them to - the normal theory behind flat taxes is that they remove disincentives to work, thereby boosting economic growth and thereby boosting revenues, this is all true but this can take anything up to 5 years to work through the system and get rid of the J-curve.

However, in Slovakia's case, the immediate reduction in tax avoidance has cancelled the J-curve immediately: it is now cheaper to just pay the darn taxes than it is to hire tax consultants to find a way around them, so tax avoidance falls and revenues rise, immediately, before the full economic growth effects of the policy have taken hold.

Genius. Britain needs a flat tax.

[Chad]

Genius. Britain needs a flat tax.

Better still a 2-rate flat(ter) tax. It has more chance of being adopted, has virtually all the enormous benefits of the flat tax and neatly negates the Labour false argument of the nurse paying the same rate as the millionaire, as there would be a slightly higher rate for top earners.

Fair, simple, cheap to administer and likely to stimulate growth.

Compare that to "econonmic stability before tax cuts". Yeurgh.

[Martin Smith]

Chad, assuming you also have a zero-rate for the lowest earners, that's actually a 3-level flat tax which is not a flat tax at all. 2-levels: zero up to x pounds of income per annum, x percent on everything above that.

[Chad]

Yes, of course you are right Martin.

The aim should be a painfully simple system that can leverage all the benefits of the simple one-page flat tax return, save millions in admin and stimulate growth.

Labour have already used the nurse and the millionaire comparison (obviously ignoring the truth that they pay different effective rates) but adding a simple higher rate for the top earners blows this argument out of the water.

[Andrew Kennedy]

My nomintion for Taxcutter is the Conservative Group on Wandsworth Council.

They have produced the lowest Council Tax bill in the country for 14 consecutive years, and the lowest Community Charge (Poll Tax) for the 3 years proceeding.

They achieve this whilst maintaining first rate services - receiving the top grade possible from the Audit Commission and also being named one of the top 5 local authorities in the country for service delivery and efficiency.

Wandsworth Council is a shining example of how a radical Conservative administration can cut tax, improve services and win elections time and time and time again.

[Richard]

I'll second Wandsworth and the TPA.

[Daniel Vince-Archer]

"Genius. Britain needs a flat tax."

If only the British economy was being propped up by vast wads of our cash being doled out by the European Union, like Slovakia.

See also: the "Britain should cut taxes like Ireland did" argument.

[Richard]

"See also: the "Britain should cut taxes like Ireland did" argument."

Ireland was getting EU subsidies for several years before it cut taxes. Its performance only began to improve after it initiated the tax cuts. Although I suppose the subsidies made the tax cuts affordable.

Out of interest, do Ireland still get significant subsidies?

[John Hustings]

"Out of interest, do Ireland still get significant subsidies?"

Incredibly they do, despite now having a higher GDP per capita than Britain. One of the many absurdities of the EU.

[James O'Shaughnessy]

How about awarding to someone who suggests something OTHER than flat taxes? Most of the arguments used to support them are ridiculously over-simplified and ignore the impact of, for example, tax credits. Whatever their disadvantages, these are much more effctive at directing cash at "the working poor" compared to raising the tax threshold, which disproportiantely benefits higher rate taxpayers.

What about looking at France, where they offer tax allowances to parents to help with the costs of child raising? And they've successfully arrested their declining birth rate too. A similar policy in the UK would do much more for families (and the Tory party's election prospects) than a flat tax would.

[Chad]

them are ridiculously over-simplified

Although you can contrast that with Brown's ridiculously over-complicated tax credit system.

Why can't tax be simple? Are you a tax advisor James... ;-)

For me, tax credits are like products companies that offer two-for-one, buy 2 next one free etc instead of the simple approach that everyone wants; simple low prices.

[Patsy Sergeant]

I'll also second Wandsworth Council, I am sure the facts can be checked, and if the award gets up the noses of all the turgid Labour Councils around, so much the better!

[Daniel Vince-Archer]

Nomination: David Davis.

Citation: For being unafraid to make a bold tax-cutting strategy the central plank of the policy platform he built his leadership campaign on.

[James O'Shaughnessy]

Not a tax adviser but my dad's an accountant! Believe me, I'm no massive fan of tax credits. All I'm saying is that simply claiming "flatten taxes, raise thresholds and all will be well" is naive in the extreme. It ignores the effect of tax credits on raising the income of low paid workers (without raising those of higher paid workers even more) as well as the fact we might WANT to use the tax system to reward certain types of behaviour, e.g. families raising children, workers saving for a pension or companies investing in research and development.

[Richard Allen]

Nomination: Wat Tyler

Citation: Just check out his blog

[Chad]

Hi James,

Surely tweaking the zero-threshold level and the choice of where to apply and how high to make the first non-zero rate against the spread of incomes nationally can neatly achieve the balance you seek (benefitting the lowest paid without providing the same benefit to the higher paid workers) without overlaying a tax credit system.

It wouldn't take too many iterations to find the right overall balance when you have the national salary data.

The real problem I have with added complexity is both the administrative cost and cost of third-party advisors to reduce liability. The added complexity also builds dependence on the state rather than greater freedom from it.

I also like the starkness of a simple flat(ter) tax system as it facilitates real comparison between governments, as with the current system, quite conveniently it is beyond the average person to understand quite how much they are being taxed.

I can see why tax credits are attractive as they are seemingly easy to apply and focus on a target group, but the net result of all these credits etc is an unwieldy expensive system which seems very unconservative to me (in the pre-2006 meaning of the word).

I'd like to see some real numbers of the actual administrative saving that can be achieved with a vastly simplified tax system to see how that in itself could reduce the tax burden.

[Jack Stone]

Firstly I am not a supporter of UKIP in anyway. Anyone who says as such is frankly a liar.
Secondly we did not lose the last election because people were unsure that we would give tax cuts should we win.
We lost because most people thought that should the party be elected they would pay for tax cuts by cutting spending on key services.
By promising tax cuts we fell into a trap Labour had set for the party. I am glad to see that David Cameron is determined not to go down that self destructive road next time.