In case you missed it, Tim Farron’s interview on yesterday’s Andrew Marr Show is here in full on BBC iPlayer (starting at 35:43) or here in a shorter clip. Standing, well wrapped up, in snowy Cumbria, Tim is in typically robust form. He pays tribute to Chris Huhne and says he “wants and expects” him

Start with taxing all incomes at the same rate – a worker on an average £26,000 is taxed £5,981, but someone earning the same in dividends pays zero. Those on the 50% tax band only pay 36% on their dividends. Bleedin’ ‘ell Polly! Don’t you know that (in effect) basic rate income tax is collected

Today the TaxPayers’ Alliance has released new research which shows that the average family pays £656,000 in taxes over their lifetime. That tax payment is around and about equal to the amount which, if saved over the years, would put said household into the top 10% in terms of wealth (850k in net assets). And

“Tax provides the funding to run the country: hospitals, schools and everything else,” he says. “Every time someone pays cash in order not to pay VAT, the nation gets diddled.” The nation is not the government, the nation is not the government finances. The nation contains within it the government, of course, contains the government

Nick Clegg, this morning, advocating closing loopholes for the rich to pay for raising the income tax threshold: ‘Right now, because of loopholes and shelters in the tax code, a quarter of all millionaires pay lower tax rates than millions of middle-class households.  Right now, Warren Buffett pays a lower tax rate than his secretary.’ Oh, all right, that wasn't Clegg. That w...

The Ministry of Defence has paid out £75 million to civil servants made redundant over the past three months.

Senior bankers, private equity moguls and hedge fund managers appear cut off from the rest of us. They often pay little or no tax, Eh? What is this little or no tax? Is this some distand memory of the hedgie paying less tax than his cleaner? Which is really he pays a lower marginal rate

Mitt Romney paid taxes at a rate of ‘close to 15 per cent’ in recent years, he said in an admission that will reignite debate about how investment income is favourably treated compared to ordinary wages

As expected S&P last night downgraded the EFSF, the eurozone’s bailout fund, from AAA to AA . The move is likely to lead to higher borrowing costs for the fund which will feed through to higher rates on any loans it pays out, reducing its effectiveness.

TUC Accepts that Allegation of Acting as a Charitable Trustee Whilst Bankrupt was Without Foundation In the mid-1980’s there were over 250 unemployed centres in Britain. Today a mere handful are left, probably less than 20%. I say probably, because no one, not least the TUC knows how many. So you can imagine how I felt when opening the TUC Handbook for 2011 to see that we weren’t even ...