Birmingham bankrupt

[ob]

I knew Croydon had been declared didn't realise it was 3 years in row. Think Woking been latest along with Slough and Thurrock amongst others

 

[meltonblue]

Think we’re long overdue a complete revision of our tax system in general tbh. I’d much rather see a focus on wealth rather than income, the disparity will just continue to grow (and public services will continue to struggle to be funded) if we don’t.

 

[BobKowalski]

You are correct the Netherlands is not Scandanavia. Ireland is a tax haven and an example of how we should have left the EU. Lower corporation tax attract companies and investment. Instead this stupid corrupt government has done the opposite and resulted in less investment and a lower tax take. The last 15 years we have had some terrible decisons by uk government's.

If lowering the Corporation tax to 12.5% was a panacea for all our ills then I suspect we may have done it. But the UK is not Ireland, and corporation tax is just one factor amongst many and not even the most crucial. Larger European countries pitch corporation tax at around the same level give or take a point or two. The US federal rate is 21% and they are powering along quite nicely at the moment.

Other factors are stability, size of market, regulatory environment, access to overseas markets, labour pool, access to migrant labour etc. It’s never one thing and there is never one simple solution.

The Tory desire to reduce corporation tax is more political ideology than economic, and, right now, it simply isn’t an option. Having corporations paying less tax while voters pay more tax is not a viable election strategy, nor would it make sense to the markets as Liz Truss found out.

 

[Manc in London]

That old chestnut, they do it out of the goodness of their hearts as a favour to us ungrateful tax payers. If they could get more in the private sector, when you start adding in benefits like gold plated pensions, extra holidays, and more generous things like sick pay, and conditions they'd be off. Let's not kid ourselves.

They might not make the cut quality wise either ?

Some may may well have a sense of public duty.

Gold plated pensions? The vast majority do not get nice pensions. Most local authority workers are low paid. In a unitary authority, you will find that over half are low paid.

I have worked in the private and public sector. I have not found any difference in the quality of staff. This 'not got the quality for the private sector' does not reflect reality in my experience.

Our organisation commissioned PwC and EY to 'deliver' some projects. The staff were mostly either incompetent or masters of the art of sophistry and doing very little. We have also brought back in to the organisation serious that we had outsourced to the private sector organisations as they were disastrous in terms of service delivery.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

If lowering the Corporation tax to 12.5% was a panacea for all our ills then I suspect we may have done it. But the UK is not Ireland, and corporation tax is just one factor amongst many and not even the most crucial. Larger European countries pitch corporation tax at around the same level give or take a point or two. The US federal rate is 21% and they are powering along quite nicely at the moment.

Strictly speaking, it's better to have high corporation tax, because what happens is that it incentivises corporations to invest more of their profits into research and development to lower their tax burden (which is what used to happen 60 or 70 years ago). Instead, we have a system that rewards stockpiling cash and giving vast dividends to the already vastly wealthy. Unfortunately, that only works in the pre-globalized world where companies can't move easily to wherever has the lowest rates. Having said that, there's clearly no political will to do anything about it.

Like companies being headquartered in the Cayman Islands (or similar) to avoid taxes, for example. How is it not possible to do something about it? How is it not possible to put such crippling charges and taxes on any transactions to and from the Cayman islands so as to make it completely pointless? This idea that we're all helpless in the face of a few shitty little islands as they basically allow companies to steal taxes generated in our countries is bollocks. We're choosing not to do anything about them because those in power stand to benefit from them too.

 

[Churchlawtonblue]

Having a tax haven on our doorstep in bad for UK PLC, that's a simple fact. Anyway this is way off topic so time to draw a close.

 

[franksinatra]

That old chestnut, they do it out of the goodness of their hearts as a favour to us ungrateful tax payers. If they could get more in the private sector, when you start adding in benefits like gold plated pensions, extra holidays, and more generous things like sick pay, and conditions they'd be off. Let's not kid ourselves.

They might not make the cut quality wise either ?

Great stuff, so much ignorance in one post.

 

[Vic]

Is that not saying what I just stated. When the benefits to them are more, they will be off !

The result of which is that the crap is left. The ones who accept no responsibility.

No, it's not what you stated. You called it "an old chestnut" that people were paid more in the private sector. And your last statement is an insult to hardworking officers trying to keep the show on the road with staff shortages and agency staff. (Oh, wait, just like the crap nurses left in the NHS who accept no responsibility). Please don't dig any deeper.

 

[Vic]

Outside of BT and maybe the post office i think privatisation has been a disaster.

Post office? What's a post office? I do remember them.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

Post office? What's a post office? I do remember them.

There are loads around? They’re increasing in number too as they’re taking on the role of high street bank for most people/businesses.