Interesting to note ICTU Deputy General Secretary Peter Bunting, now sitting on that interim NI Water Board, welcoming a TUC report critical of attempts to lower corporation tax here. From the Belfast Telegraph report
ICTU Deputy General Secretary Peter Bunting said: “This paper should once and for all lay to rest the argument by some vested interests in Northern Ireland that a low corporation tax regime would assist economic growth for all, as opposed to private profit for the few.”
As far as I’m aware, all the political parties within the NI Executive are in favour of reducing corporation tax here…
According to the Belfast Telegraph report
A TUC report says that reducing corporation tax to 12.5% would only encourage ‘brass plate’ investment — where companies register their names somewhere for tax purposes without moving staff — so it would fail to generate additional tax revenues or jobs.
Differing tax rates between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK would be an open goal for tax avoidance, the report says.
Update In the comments zone John O’Farrell provides a link to the actual report [pdf file]. And, as he correctly points out, it is a report jointly commissioned by the TUC and the ICTU.