Tax Research has an article criticising the TaxPayers’ Alliance for being a bunch of rentaquote extreme-right-wingers who distort the facts to bash Labour, socialism and anyone who thinks taxes should be higher than 1%, and also criticising the media for taking the TaxPayers’ Alliance seriously.
This is entirely true: the TPA is a lobby group for well-off people. If it – or indeed, anyone whose concern with cutting taxes is motivated by ideology rather than personal venality – were truly interested in tax cuts for moral or efficiency reasons, it would focus on addressing the 80%+ marginal tax rates faced by very poor workers, rather than the frankly immaterial amounts of tax paid by those of us lucky enough to earn or inherit a lot of money.
However, I’m sceptical that Tax Research is in much of a position to comment. As I’ve pointed out several times on this blog (and on another temporarily disappeared blog, which I will mend when I get a free weekend in the UK…), its leader Richard Murphy is equally keen to offer dubious opinions on complicated issues, and is frequently quoted in the press doing so…
Woah! The TPA's biggest mistakes are constantly bashing Council Tax (which is the nearest thing we have to Land Value Tax) and constantly harp on about Irish corporation tax (which is a complete red herring) rather than railing against VAT and Employer's NIC (the worst taxes we have) but as far as facts and reportage go, they are usually very accurate. And government waste is government waste whatever language you speak. They seem pretty straight down the middle to me, all in all, and the world is a better place for them.