Chiswickite - formerly The Croydonian

I've just seen an interesting item in the Wall Street Journal (5/5/06) about the possible implementation of flat taxes (individual and corporate) by the government of Costa Rica:

"Immediately after President-elect Oscar Arias takes office in Costa Rica on Monday, he will have an historic opportunity to help bring his country into 21st-century competitiveness. The choice? Whether to adopt a national flat tax on corporate and individual income. ..Yet despite his reputation as a man of the left, Mr. Arias is also a practical socialist, blessed with common sense and not averse to leading on controversial issues. He has pledged to fight for the ratification of the Central American Free Trade Agreement even though the country's labor unions are militantly opposed to it. On the flat tax, Mr. Arias is already sending encouraging signals. Last week his National Liberation Party made an agreement with the Libertarian Movement in Congress to seriously explore the idea. Together the two parties would have enough votes to make it a reality.

The writer (Mary Anastasia O'Grady) further notes: "Yet the flat tax has already proved an effective way to fight poverty in a host of developing countries. For individuals, tax evasion goes down and tax collection goes up because of better compliance. Low corporate rates attract capital, spurring economic growth and job creation. That means there is more money in government coffers to help the needy. Without a laundry list of tax exemptions and loopholes, corruption is thwarted".


C'mon Gordon, how about it?

(I'm not in the habit of getting my news a month old, but the explanation for why I've seen this is far too boring to go into. However, a friend's father has stockpiled his old newspapers and is currently working through copies of Le Monde from the 70's at the rate of a copy a day)

Labels: Sane economics, South America

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 27, 2006 at 2:06 pm. You can skip to the end and leave a response.