Toynbee on Tax

Polly Toynbee is always worth a read when she's talking about tax. Today, she criticises HSBC and the CBI for complaining, against all the evidence, that high tax rates make the UK a bad place to do business.

I like the way Toynbee uses her column to make the moral argument for taxation, and the need for public services which the private sector will never provide.

It frustrates me, however, that when she argues for the importance of redistribution she generally speaks only of redistributing wealth, rather than finding ways of redistributing the economic opportunities that beget wealth. Like most commenators she appears to believe that nothing can be done about prevailing economic arrangements; that we can only strive to make the best of a bad job.

My piece in the Guardian outlines the importance of changing the way we think about tax if we are to alter economic structures for the greater good.