Nearly 2 weeks ago, 17 million Britons (mostly poor) voted to leave the EU in what amounted to a plebiscite on austerity, finance capitalism, and the widening gap between the increasingly wealthy and the increasingly poor. In response, the Conservative government says it will tempt corporations to come to the UK by making the rich get even richer and the poor even poorer.
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has announced his government's plan to slash corporate taxes to 15% (down from 20%), "the lowest of any major economy" to make the UK into a "super competitive economy."
EU rules also forced the UK to adopt safety and labour laws that big business chafed against — look for those to go next.
Finally, there will be a lot of money shifting into trusts, which allow for money to be invested and accumulated anonymously (the trustees' identities are know, the owners of the trust need not be disclosed). The EU is on the verge of enacting rules requiring transparency in trusts' beneficial owners, which the UK had argued against (trusts are a cornerstone of how the UK finance and property industries launder money for global criminals). With Brexit, they will be exempted from these rules.
The people who voted for Brexit will end up in a UK with even less money for social spending and even more money in the pockets of a very few winners.
The head of tax at the OECD had warned, in an internal memo cited by Reuters, that the fallout from Brexit “may push the UK to be even more aggressive in its tax offer” but that further steps in that direction “would really turn the UK into a tax haven type of economy”.
Beside the tax cut, the chancellor said his five-point plan included focusing on a new push for investment from China, ensuring support for bank lending, redoubling efforts to invest in the Northern powerhouse and maintaining the UK’s fiscal credibility.
George Osborne puts corporation tax cut at heart of Brexit recovery plan
[George Parker/Financial Times] [Paywalled]
