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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (100134)	6/4/2003 3:54:46 AM
From: Elsewhere	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

US taxes mostly on income (federal, state, and payroll taxes). Europe taxes mostly on VAT and sales. Is VAT counted as tax on profit here? How do property taxes compare? I smell an apples to oranges comparison. Here's the tax composition in the USA vs. EU-15: USA EU-15 Income & profits 49.1 34.9 Social security 23.9 27.5 Property 10.7 4.9 Goods & services 16.4 30.4 Payroll - 1.2 Other - 0.8 Source: oecd.org "Goods & services" probably includes VAT in Europe though it should be mentioned that businesses needn't pay it, "only" consumers.

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (100134)	6/4/2003 5:24:38 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Governors to monitor BBC for bias every quarter By Tom Leonard, Media Editor News Telegraph (Filed: 03/06/2003) At least this is a start! The BBC's impartiality will come under increased scrutiny from its governors, who have asked for quarterly reports. At their latest board meeting the governors said they wanted to "track performance over the year and examine specific aspects of news coverage or other programming" before giving an assessment on impartiality in the BBC's annual report. A spokesman said the board had always taken an interest in the issue, but "as always happens during a conflict, the Iraq war highlighted the importance of impartiality to all broadcasters, including the BBC". The reports, which will be provided by the corporation because the governors have no resources to commission research, will focus on whether viewers and listeners believe the BBC is biased. Aside from the war, the corporation has faced renewed accusations in recent weeks that it is failing in its duty to be impartial over issues such as local elections and paedophile Roman Catholic priests. It has resisted calls by some politicians and broadcasters for it to be made answerable to Ofcom, the new communications super-regulator. telegraph.co.uk

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (100134)	6/4/2003 8:26:39 AM
From: Dennis O'Bell	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Re: European taxes vs US and employment I think Jochen's remark in his #reply-19000203 is very pertinent and should be remembered when this subject comes up. >>> One of the main problems in Europe are the rigid labor markets. While this is partly due to differences in tax structure, the main reasons for this I believe are cultural, and thus cannot be "fixed" by tweaking tax rates or distributions. All things considered, taxes and costs of doing business are comparable here and in France (the only data point I can cite from experience.) Here, some things that are handled by taxation in France are done by private insurance. In some ways this is more fair (for example landscaping is dangerous compared to office work, particularly if they ever handle felling trees or some such, and so workmen's compensation is really high for that profession), but we also have some bad side effects such as out of control malpractice insurance rates. No system is going to be optimal.