Bastiat Laddie, Bastiat

What with these new methods of taxing offshore earnings being mooted, we're seeing a few companies moving offshore themselves. But that's not all we should be concerned about:

Growing concerns that the Government will increase taxation on firms' foreign earnings are reverberating across the Atlantic, damaging Britain's appeal as the gateway to Europe, leading tax experts say.

US firms looking to establish European headquarters are increasingly uncomfortable with the British tax regime and evaluating other bases such as Ireland and the Netherlands, according to a leading partner in a major tax firm.

As ever in matters economic we have to not only take account of the things that we can see, we have to go looking for those things which are hidden.

It isn't just those companies leaving, those that we can see we'll lose the tax from, it's those who never come here in the first place whose tax we also lose. Plus, of course, all the tax paid by their employees, the VAT on their purchases and so on.

Whether these changes will in fact raise more revenue than the old system isn't the issue here, for the Treasury insists that the changes are meant to be revenue neutral. But add to those companies leaving the effects of those never arriving and it's difficult to see how that could be true without a substantial rise in taxation on those companies that stay.

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