City AM finally jumps the shark (bottom of front page):
High property taxes put British businesses at a competitive disadvantage, despite the UK’s low corporation tax rate, said Jim Hubbard, policy advisor at the [British Retail Consortium].*
For every £1 a business pays in corporation tax, it must pay £2.30 in business rates.
That is a humungous lie, even by City AM's standards.
According to the UK government:
Total UK corporation tax liabilities 2015-16, £43.7 billion.
Total English Business Rates liabilities, 2015-16 £23.1 billion, round up to £26 billion for whole of UK.
If we also include about £10 billion in income tax paid by owners of unincorporated businesses, on average, UK businesses pay about 50p in business rates for every £1 of tax on net profits (corporation tax and income tax), less than a quarter of City AM's figure.
* The first part is clearly hokum as well. Ignoring the tax incidence point, UK retailers are not competing in any realistic way with non-UK retailers. The only reason some UK people go on shopping trips to France etc is because of lower alcohol and tobacco duties over there; business rates have absolutely no effect on the price paid by the end consumer.
Business Rates do make a marginal difference to the viability of heavy industry in low-value areas, but that's all part of the general Home-Owner-Ist plan.
Debate Magazine
