Brad, Oskar, Noam

Max Sawicky sawicky at epinet.org
Thu Mar 18 13:34:12 PST 1999


The book is "The Search for Equity: Welfare and Security in the Global Economy," David Foden and Peter Morris (eds), Lawrence & Wishart, London.


> I'm interested. But I thought the point was harmonization of
*corporate* tax rates. To neutralize the threat of flight. >>

That may be what Oscar had in his head, but for the EU establishment, the VAT is top of the list as far as rate harmonization goes. Prior to that are arcane administrative concerns owing to the development of the single market.

The bigger flight problem among EU countries are the bank deposits flying from one country to another in response to tax rates, among other things. Apparently cross-country tracking of these is not as easy for tax authorities as it should be. Plus the bank secrecy laws in Switzerland and elsewhere which make capital taxation more difficult.

Instead of bombing Kosovo, NATO should invade Switzerland, take all their chocolates, and publish their bank records.

mbs



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