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IREF - Sep 01, 2010

Tax competition or tax harmonization?

by Jacques Garello, Board Member of IREF
Tax competition or tax harmonization?
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Following the last visit to Paris of the German Minister of Finances Wolfgang Schäuble, the French and German governments have decided to harmonize their tax systems. Both sides have emphasised the positive impact that such a harmonization could have on the economic growth in Europe and on the health of the euro.



  

  

    



  	

        IREF - Aug 06, 2010
      

    

      
France’s new policy to ease “access to ownership” shows once again the prevailing fallacy of the planed recovery 

      
Vesselina Spassova, PhD

  
  

  

	    
The French Minister of Economy, Christine Lagarde, announced last Wednesday that the government will stimulate the housing market in an attempt to boost the economy. “Building and construction industry is a key sector, with important multiplier effect on the whole economy”, says Lagarde, “Our aim is to improve access to private property, knowing that only 58% of French citizens own their home, while the EU average is at 66%.”

	    

      

    		

	

	  


    


  



  

  

    



  	

        IREF - Jul 26, 2010
      

    

      
Don’t let anyone tell you there is nothing Greece could do!

      
by Pierre Garello, Board Member of IREF

  
  

  

	
Don’t let anyone tell you there is nothing Greece could do!
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It is summertime and everyone is happy to take a brake from what has been a terribly tormented spring. Many of our European politicians and policy advisers (IMF) feel satisfied—or at least claim to be—that they have done the right thing and kept the boat afloat. Now, they say, we just have to consolidate the job to make sure that a new big financial crisis, spurred by disastrous public finance in many EU countries, will not blow in our faces.

 

	    

      

    		

	

	  


    


  



  

  

    



  	

        IREF - Jul 16, 2010
      

    

      
Lower taxes for stronger economic growth

      
by Jean-Philippe Delsol, Board Member of IREF

  
  

  

	
Lower taxes for stronger economic growth
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For getting out of the public finance crisis it is a good thing to cut on spending. To reform the public sector is even better. But is it also necessary to increase taxes? With few others, Jean Philippe Delsol, administrator of IREF, had developed the conviction from past experience that one should instead decrease the tax burden.

	    

      

    		

	

	  


    


  



  

  

    



  	

        IREF - Jul 14, 2010
      

    

      
Incentives matter

      

  
  

  

	
Incentives matter
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Question: Mr. President announces that, starting in 2011, there will be a sharp increase in tax rates. What do you think individuals and businesses will do in 2010? Using basic economics, Arthur Laffer in a Wall Street Journal article dated June 6 gives us a very plausible scenario: Individuals and businesses will do their best to transform the wealth and income to be taxed in 2011 into wealth and income to be taxed in 2010.