Monday 3 September 2007

Taxes on effort and risk taking

This is a Samizdata quote of the day. I felt it needed repeating:

I believe taxes - of all kinds - should be kept as low as possible and that the pressure to get them down should be relentless... Taxes on income are taxes on effort, work and entrepreneurship. Taxes on capital are taxes on investment and risk taking. But it is effort, work, entrepreneurship, investment and risk taking that we need to continue to grow our economic base.

Charlie McCreevy, European Commissioner.

Hat Tip to samizdata.net

2 comments:

fake consultant said...

there is a balance to be maintained between wise taxation and excessive taxation-but i would not agree with the quote that taxes should be as low as possible.

some examples of what happens when taxes are too low are available here.

CFD Ed said...

I see your concern but I think we are arguing definitions here to some extent.

To me, tax being as low as possible, means being the least it takes to get the job done properly.

Personally I am not happy that Government is necessarily competent, reliable, or trustworthy enough to do the job properly. Taxation is like a drug to government. It gets bigger and needs to feed it’s habit and when it does it gets bigger…

Too much taxation kills the golden goose.