The Liberty Tree © fintag

News comments:
There is a lot of debate about whether Ireland should increase its tax rate (and help pacify all those German bond holders) or keep them as they are. Tax goes up, the Americans leave, unemployment goes up, welfare costs increase, income tax falls, its one holy mess.

In the UK, whcih has the world's most complicated tax regime in the known universe, the Office of Tax Simplication has published its 1000+ tax reliefs:

hm treasury excel

Not only has this diminished my tax accountants hourly rate, it has enabled me to ask him some hard hitting questions about my own tax bill.

I have one way to simplify the tax system. Abandoned all these reliefs and have one rate of tax.

All income / capital gains over the national average salary (say GBP22,000) is taxed at 20%.

Today's shorts:
Anyone connected with SAC (nymag)
Ireland hasn't a clue how much bail out it needs (bloomberg)
Korea ready to nuke Asia (bbc)

Today's longs:
Murdoch (boo) gives Cowell (boo) an Emmy (guardian)

Gossip:
Lisbon to be twinned with Dublin and Rome and Madrid and Paris ...