Now cut our taxes

THIS paper has always argued that high business taxes not only stunt economic growth and crush job creation, but are also profoundly counter-productive. They are meant to increase the overall tax take but frequently have the opposite effect.

It’s not exactly rocket science. The more the state saddles private enterprise with punitive levies, the lower their profits – and the fewer people they can afford to employ.

And this self- evident truth is starkly proven by figures we publish today on the amount of Corporation Tax collected by HMRC in recent years.

In 2010, when the tax was levied at 28 per cent, it gave the Treasury £36billion. Now, it has fallen to 19 per cent – but the yield has rocketed to a massive £55billion, a rise of more than 50 per cent.

Meanwhile, an unprecedented number of j obs have been c r eated and UK unemployment is at a 40-year low. In a period when global growth has been sluggish to the point of stagnation, this is a thundering endorsement of the virtues of a low-tax economy.

Philip Hammond should bear this firmly in mind as he prepares for tomorrow’s Budget. And he should not only keep cutting Corporation Tax but also seriously consider slashing personal taxation – is Scottish Finance Secretary Derek Mackay listening, too?

What better way to show the world that Britain is truly open for business?