A less attraction business location?

A CBI survey has found that Britain’s complicated and high level business taxes are making Britain a less attractive location for business.

It found 50% of business either had or were thinking about moving abroad mainly due to the taxes.

The Treasury has hit back at the survey, denying that Britain is uncompetitive due to its taxes.

“The World Bank recently found that the typical UK business faces the lowest total tax rate in the G7, the fifth lowest in the OECD,” said a Treasury spokesperson.

Now there are two things about this:

The first being that it is hardly surprising the CBI has found Britain is uncompetitive due to its taxes. It does represent British business interests after all.

The second is that the Treasury denied Britain was uncompetitive due to its taxes. It does make a fair bit of money from its taxes on business.

So surely both can’t be right. Well the answer is yes they can.

The CBI survey consulted executives in 100 top firms. There could be no taxes at all, and these people are still likely to think there is too much tax.

The Treasury quotes, "The World Bank recently.” Well how recently. Does this take into account for example the level of corporation tax, which has gone from 10th best in the OECD in 2000 to 18th in 2005. Probably not.