Will the VAT rise be bad for business?

Read the debate in full here.

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31 January 2011

Tom Clougherty explains why the VAT rise will have a negative effect on business in Director Magazine.

Is selling off public forests a good idea?

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28 January 2011

Dr Eamonn Butler argues that it is right to sell off public forests on BBC Radio Somerset.

You can listen to Eamonn here (about 20mins into the show)

Scotland Bill may give useful tax cuts and a dose of realism

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30 January 2011

Dr Eamonn Butler argues that the Scotland Bill is a small step in the right direction in the Sunday Post.

Britain's shrinking economy

Read the article in full in The Guardian here. 

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25 January 2011

Dr Eamonn Butler gives his verdict in The Guardian on news that GDP fell by 0.5% in the last quarter.

Enlightened crusade to save Adam Smith's home

Published in The Scotsman here. 

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20 January 2011

Dr Eamonn Butler supports plans to restore the final home of Adam Smith and bring it back into use in The Scotsman.

Tom on BBC Look North on council cuts

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19 January 2011

Tom Clougherty defends the need for councils to make cuts and argues that the cuts should go deeper.

Watch Tom on BBC Look North here (at approximately 3min 50secs) 

Tax Freedom Day will be 30 May 2011

Britons will work for 149 days to pay their taxes in 2011, according to respected free-market think tank the Adam Smith Institute. Every penny earned in the UK between January 1 and May 29 will be taken by the taxman to support government expenditure.

This means that Tax Freedom Day, the day when people stop working for the government and start working for themselves, will come on May 30 in 2011.

The most up to date government statistics suggest that Tax Freedom Day came on May 27 in 2010. This means that Britons will spend three extra days working to pay their taxes in 2011, compared with the year before.

The main reason for this is that the government has raised VAT, in order to help reduce the UK’s record budget deficit.

Tom Clougherty, executive director of the Adam Smith Institute, condemned the VAT rise saying:

“As well as hitting every household in the country, the VAT hike is going to dent consumer confidence and put a dampener on our economic recovery – as the Office of Budget Responsibility has already pointed out.”

He added:

“The government is right to give priority to cutting spending and plugging the deficit. But as Tax Freedom Day shows, Britons are still desperately overtaxed. The fact that we spend almost five months working for the State – and only seven months working for ourselves and our families – is a shocking indictment of big, wasteful government.”

Dr Eamonn Butler, director of the Institute, added:

“The coalition should examine the possibility of making targeted tax cuts now to encourage economic growth. But in the long term, they need to fundamentally overhaul the entire tax system. Lower, simpler, flatter taxes would be fairer for individuals, and better for the economy.”

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Britons to spend first five months paying taxes

Published in the Daily Telegraph here.

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29 December 2010

Daily Telegraph's personal finance correspondent, Myra Butterworth, writes on the front page of the paper that, according to the Adam Smith Institute, Tax Freedom Day will fall on 30 May 2011. 

We work three more days for taxman

Published in The Sun here. 

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29 December 2010

The Sun's political correspondent Kevin Schofield tells readers that we will work three more days to pay the taxman in 2011, according to the Adam Smith Institute.

Raising VAT looks like a self-inflicted wound

Read the article here.

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Written by Tom Clougherty

14 December 2010

Tom Clougherty writes that the VAT rise will be a regrettable step in the wrong direction and will dent consumer confidence in the Yorkshire Post.