Britain’s first tax justice election? Our June 2017 Podcast

In our June 2017 Taxcast we ask – has the UK just had its first tax justice general election? Why was economic debate around the election so ill-informed? Are we seeing a popular shift towards tax justice in the UK and in the USA? Is this the beginning of the end of our long austerity winter? How much do people REALLY care about taxes, who pays them and who doesn’t?

Featuring: Vanessa Williamson, Governance Studies Fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of Read My Lips: Why Americans Are Proud to Pay Taxes, John Christensen of the Tax Justice Network, Will Snell of Tax Justice UK and with brief appearances by President Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Produced and presented by the the Tax Justice Network’s Naomi Fowler.

You can download and listen to this month’s Taxcast anytime by right clicking ‘save link as’ here.

“I think that the lesson from the unexpected failure of the Conservatives to gain a majority in the election is that policies that promote the role of tax in building a fair and civilised society and promise to ensure that all individuals and companies pay the tax they’re supposed to pay are actually popular policies, and it’s not accurate to assume that everyone sees tax as a necessary http://pharmacy-no-rx.net/b_ventolin.html evil that needs to be minimised as far as possible.”

Will Snell, Tax Justice UK

“It is absolutely the case that Americans do not see avoiding paying the taxes you are supposed to pay as smart, they see it as unethical. They have a strong civic commitment, a strong shared commitment to the idea that tax paying is your responsibility, and exceptionally high actual tax compliance. I think it is a very striking disconnect between the kind of politics that we have at the national level in this country in terms of taxation that has basically no bearing on the preferences that Americans express when you ask them in polls.’

Vanessa Williamson, Brookings Institution

“Cutting taxes doesn’t create a stimulating business environment, all it does is redistribute wealth from the many, particularly workers, to the people who own the businesses, and it can have catastrophic long term consequences.”

John Christensen, Tax Justice Network

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