By: GZ on Martedì 29 Maggio 2007 13:46
in europa ora tutti tagliano le tasse, tedeschi, inglesi, spagnoli, francesi, tutti meno l'italia
tra parentesi quando scrivono questi articoli su bloomberg o reuters dimenticano sempre di citare l'IRAP in Italia
Comunque questo è un fattore positivo, solo che è ironico che taglino le tasse per le imprese sotto il 30% quando i lavoratori e la classe media ne pagano sul 40% o più e proprio nel momento in cui i profitti toccano il livello massimo del secolo in percentuale del PIL ed è il consumatore che è in difficoltà
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^Tax-Cut War Widens in Europe as U.K., France, Germany Jump In#http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aoZ7q9LhDrVs&refer=exclusive^
By Simon Kennedy
May 29 (Bloomberg) -- A tax-cut war is spreading across Europe as leaders of the continent's biggest economies give up criticizing smaller neighbors for slashing business rates and decide to join them instead.
The move toward lower levies on corporate profits in Spain, Germany, France and the U.K. is aimed at wooing companies and reinforcing the strongest economic expansion in six years. It comes after Ireland and new European Union members from eastern Europe succeeded in attracting investment, and irking their larger rivals, with tax rates of less than 20 percent -- among the world's lowest.
``The gloves are off,'' says Erik Nielsen, chief European economist with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in London. ``Bigger countries are now competing on taxes. This is very much something that will determine how much and where companies want to invest.''
The EU's average corporate tax rate at the end of 2006 was a record-low 26 percent and is falling even more. Gordon Brown, the U.K.'s chancellor of the exchequer and prime minister-in- waiting, in March lopped 2 percentage points off the top rate, which is now 28 percent. Germany's lower house of parliament last week backed Chancellor Angela Merkel's plan to pare its corporate rate to 30 percent from 39 percent.
Cutting Rates
Nicolas Sarkozy, elected French president this month, promises to reduce his country's 33 percent rate by at least 5 percentage points. Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's government is cutting its rate to 30 percent from 35 percent; and the premier of Italy, Romano Prodi, is considering a reduction in his country's 33 percent rate.
The rush to lower business taxes is a turnaround for the region's biggest nations, whose governments once complained their neighbors were engaging in ``tax dumping'' and threatened to cut aid to them. Just three years ago, Sarkozy, then France's finance minister, sought EU support to implement a common minimum corporate tax rate throughout the bloc.
Feeding the complaints were business-tax reductions by Poland, Slovakia and Hungary prior to their European Union entry in 2004. Poland cut its levy to 19 percent from 27 percent. Slovakia adopted a flat-tax rate of 19 percent, down from 25 percent, and Hungary went to 16 percent from 18 percent.