EXCLUSIVE: 24 hrs after Reeves' historic tax INCREASE budget, EU announces historic tax DECREASES
UK Chancellor’s tax take rises to new record, EU27’s tax take falls to lowest in over 10 years
Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2024
The new Labour Government is travelling in the opposite direction to its EU friends
Yesterday, just 24 hours after Rachel Reeves sat down in the Commons after delivering her tax hike budget, the EU announced its member countries have been cutting taxes, not increasing them. In the UK, the total tax as a percentage of GDP is increasing, but in the EU it’s falling fast.
The Facts4EU.Org think tank’s overnight analysis of the EU’s latest tax figures for last year (released yesterday afternoon), reveals the EU’s direction of travel is the polar opposite to that of the UK’s new Labour government under Sir Keir Starmer.
Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary
Governments’ total tax take as a percentage of GDP
1. Over the past 10 years
© Brexit Facts4EU.Org 2024 - click to enlarge
[Sources: EU Commission (Eurostat), ONS. IFS, HoCL.]
2. Country-by-country for 2023
- France : 45.6%
- Belgium : 44.8%
- Denmark : 44.1%
- Austria : 43.5%
- Luxembourg : 42.8%
- Finland : 42.7%
- Sweden : 42.3%
- Italy : 41.7%
- Greece : 40.7%
- Germany : 40.3%
- Netherlands : 39.1%
- Cyprus : 38.8%
- Portugal : 37.6%
- Croatia : 37.3%
- Spain : 37.0%
- Slovenia : 36.9%
- UK : 36.8%
- Poland : 36.0%
- Slovakia : 35.5%
- Hungary : 35.1%
- Czechia : 34.1%
- Estonia : 34.0%
- Latvia : 33.4%
- Lithuania : 32.4%
- Bulgaria : 29.9%
- Malta : 27.1%
- Romania : 27.0%
- Ireland : 22.7%
© Brexit Facts4EU.Org 2024 - click to enlarge
EU becoming more competitive, UK looks set to become less competitive
The UK was already on track to increase the tax burden and - except for a brief interlude when Liz Truss became Prime Minister - higher taxes seemed to be the policy. Now we have the Reeves budget, which has gone down badly in the country and in the world's markets. Sterling, the stock market, and the bond markets have all moved against this budget.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Channel it seems the realisation has finally been sinking in that small-state, low-tax economies are the way to drive growth, which in turn pays for public spending.
The highest and the lowest EU government taxers
As can be seen above, France remains the worst EU country when it comes to taking as much tax as possible in proportion to GDP. At the other end of the scale, Ireland profits from having the lowest corporate tax rates in Europe which has led to massive tax revenues from global corporates who have sited their European headquarters there. For how long this will be allowed to continue remains to be seen.
Observations
Ordinarily we would applaud any moves by the UK government to turn away from the policies and direction of the EU. In this case we are unable to do that, because we believe the policies and direction of travel of the new Labour Government of Sir Keir Starmer to be deeply harmful to the economic and societal prospects for the people of the United Kingdom.
Our analysis above clearly shows that the EU27 countries as a whole are moving towards lower taxes and social contributions, as a proportion of GDP. In the UK, however, it seems the opposite is the case.
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[ Sources: EU Commission | IFS | ONS | House of Commons Library | OECD ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.
Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Fri 01 Nov 2024
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