The government should “return to Adam Smith’s canons of taxation”
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Mark Littlewood writes for the Spectator's Coffee House blog
Charles K. Rowley writes for the Daily Telegraph
Philip Booth writes for Financial World
To reduce the burden on businesses, the government should “Return to Adam Smith’s canons of taxation.” Ever since Nigel Lawson’s Chancellorship, the tax system has increasingly deviated from his two canons of “convenience” and “efficiency”.
Philip argues that “these are still the best two measuring rods by which the administrative characteristics of a tax system should be judged and the UK tax system fares poorly by both.”
See also IEA publication Taxation and Red Tape