Toynbee fact checker....
"Instead [Brown] boasted of Labour's deep cuts in corporation tax, which now at 28% is among the lowest in the west". Source
OK, let's take The West as being a synonym for the OECD. Fair?
"...at the turn of the millennium the British rate of 30% was 3.6 percentage points below the OECD average. Yet by 2005 it was 1.4 points higher. In 2000 there were only seven OECD members with a corporate tax rate lower than 30%; there are now 14". (This is from The Business in January 2007, quoted on the personal site of the author)
"Comparing Britain’s tax policy with that of the most forward-thinking European nations has become almost embarrassing. The Irish (with their 12.5% corporation tax) and the Eastern Europeans – in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia corporation tax is respectively 24%, 16%, and 19% – remain ahead of the pack. The rest of Europe is starting to follow their lead, as tax competition works its magic and forces even social-democratic governments to adapt to reality; some of the developments on the continent have been truly remarkable, albeit barely noticed by the British chattering classes. The Austrians cut corporation tax from 34% to 25% in 2005. A week ago, corporation tax in Holland was cut to 25.5%. Denmark has reduced its tax rate from 34% to 28%. In Finland it is now only 26%, compared to 29% in 2004. Between 1999 and 2004, the Portuguese reduced their rate from 37.4% to 27.5%. Corporation tax is also lower in Greece and Luxembourg than in Britain. Even in those European countries where corporation tax remains higher than in Britain, the direction is clearly down. In Belgium company tax has fallen from 40.2% to 34%; the Germans slashed theirs from 52% to 38.9% in 2001 and could introduce additional reductions next year. Last year, the French cut their own corporation rate from 41.7% to 34.4%; even more depressingly from Britain’s perspective, President Chirac has just pledged that France will reduce corporation tax to 20% in five years with the long-term goal of getting it down to 10%".
"....among the lowest in the west". Yeah, right.
"To quote Stefan Bach of the German Institute of Economic Development, “Even if a nexus between tax cuts and economic growth is not clear in theory and difficult to prove empirically, the international experience shows: countries that have lowered their corporate income tax had a positive economic development.” KPMG corporate tax survey 2006
Which survey also shows an average corporate tax rate, across 88 countries, of 27.1% as of 1/1/2006.
OK, let's take The West as being a synonym for the OECD. Fair?
"...at the turn of the millennium the British rate of 30% was 3.6 percentage points below the OECD average. Yet by 2005 it was 1.4 points higher. In 2000 there were only seven OECD members with a corporate tax rate lower than 30%; there are now 14". (This is from The Business in January 2007, quoted on the personal site of the author)
"Comparing Britain’s tax policy with that of the most forward-thinking European nations has become almost embarrassing. The Irish (with their 12.5% corporation tax) and the Eastern Europeans – in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia corporation tax is respectively 24%, 16%, and 19% – remain ahead of the pack. The rest of Europe is starting to follow their lead, as tax competition works its magic and forces even social-democratic governments to adapt to reality; some of the developments on the continent have been truly remarkable, albeit barely noticed by the British chattering classes. The Austrians cut corporation tax from 34% to 25% in 2005. A week ago, corporation tax in Holland was cut to 25.5%. Denmark has reduced its tax rate from 34% to 28%. In Finland it is now only 26%, compared to 29% in 2004. Between 1999 and 2004, the Portuguese reduced their rate from 37.4% to 27.5%. Corporation tax is also lower in Greece and Luxembourg than in Britain. Even in those European countries where corporation tax remains higher than in Britain, the direction is clearly down. In Belgium company tax has fallen from 40.2% to 34%; the Germans slashed theirs from 52% to 38.9% in 2001 and could introduce additional reductions next year. Last year, the French cut their own corporation rate from 41.7% to 34.4%; even more depressingly from Britain’s perspective, President Chirac has just pledged that France will reduce corporation tax to 20% in five years with the long-term goal of getting it down to 10%".
"....among the lowest in the west". Yeah, right.
"To quote Stefan Bach of the German Institute of Economic Development, “Even if a nexus between tax cuts and economic growth is not clear in theory and difficult to prove empirically, the international experience shows: countries that have lowered their corporate income tax had a positive economic development.” KPMG corporate tax survey 2006
Which survey also shows an average corporate tax rate, across 88 countries, of 27.1% as of 1/1/2006.
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