Slash corporation tax to boost wages

The best way for Britain to get more money into the hands of the workers is to cut corporation tax. Matthew Lynn explains why.

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Did he boost wages by the back door?

Apart from in the US, where they are still ridiculously high, corporation taxes have been coming down across the world. But it is Britain that has reduced them most aggressively. The former chancellor, George Osborne, had already cut the main rate from 28% to 20%, and it is scheduled to drop even further to 17% in the next couple of years. In the wake of the Brexit referendum, Osborne, in one of his last moves as chancellor, pledged to cut that again to 15%. That will be by far the lowest rate of any major economy, and only just above tax-haven rates.

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Matthew Lynn

Matthew Lynn is a columnist for Bloomberg, and writes weekly commentary syndicated in papers such as the Daily Telegraph, Die Welt, the Sydney Morning Herald, the South China Morning Post and the Miami Herald. He is also an associate editor of Spectator Business, and a regular contributor to The Spectator. Before that, he worked for the business section of the Sunday Times for ten years. 

He has written books on finance and financial topics, including Bust: Greece, The Euro and The Sovereign Debt Crisis and The Long Depression: The Slump of 2008 to 2031. Matthew is also the author of the Death Force series of military thrillers and the founder of Lume Books, an independent publisher.