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Stability and its significance in UK tax policy and legislation
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Snape, John (2015) Stability and its significance in UK tax policy and legislation. British Tax Review, 2015 . pp. 561-579. ISSN 0007-1870.
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Abstract
A particular conception of tax stability is developing in the UK. It has implications for HM Government’s approach to tax policy and legislation over the next five years. It is therefore important to consider how this conception might differ from apparently similar values promulgated by other recent administrations. This stability is grounded in 17th and 18th century notions of private property, as articulated by John Locke, David Hume and Adam Smith, and has affinities with Friedrich von Hayek and with 20th century German "ordoliberalism." These, as has been said, are the origins of ideas such as the proposed "tax lock commitment" and the updated "Charter for Budget Responsibility." They have already been criticised for their explicit rejection of 20th century "Keynesian" ideas for stimulating economic growth. Tax stability provides the justification for "shrinking the state" and enhancing property rights, promoting private investment, underscoring "the rule of law", and facilitating public spending cuts. None of these aims addresses widespread concerns about the particular form of inequality that seems to have resurfaced in recent decades. Significantly, stability also implies, with regard to the taxpayer, a private sphere of property rights and, with that, a relatively restrained approach to tax avoidance, and its rigid separation from tax evasion. This last seems politically impossible, given the inequality concerns referred to above, and that fact alone may well undermine the vision of stability that HM Government is striving to promote. To criticise the 2015 Summer Budget for lacking a tax policy "narrative" or "sense of direction", whilst astute and understandable, is to overlook the significance of these ideas about stability.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||
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Subjects: | K Law [Moys] > KM Common Law, Public Law | ||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Law | ||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Taxation -- Law and legislation -- Great Britain, Taxation -- Political aspects -- Great Britain , Economic development -- Great Britain, Keynesian economics | ||||
Journal or Publication Title: | British Tax Review | ||||
Publisher: | Sweet & Maxwell | ||||
ISSN: | 0007-1870 | ||||
Official Date: | 2015 | ||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 2015 | ||||
Page Range: | pp. 561-579 | ||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||
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