33155_TPA Text 21/2/06 5:36 pm Page 1 FLAT TAX: TOWARDS A BRITISH MODEL By Allister Heath The author Allister Heath is Associate Editor of The Spectator magazine and Deputy Editor of The Business newspaper. He has been a regular contributor to the Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday in Edinburgh and he has also written for many other newspapers and magazines, such as The Wall Street Journal Europe, Economic Affairs and The European Journal. Heath went to school in France and holds a B.Sc. in Economics from the London School of Economics and an M.Phil. in Economics from Oxford University. He was awarded the Honourable Mention in the annual Frederic Bastiat international journalism prize in October 2005. © Allister Heath February 2006 Acknowledgments I would like to thank Matthew Elliott of The TaxPayers’ Alliance and Sacha Kumaria of the Stockholm Network for initiating this project and David B Smith of Williams de Broe for helpful comments. But by far my greatest debt is to Neda for her loving help and for putting up with me writing this book in my spare time – of which, as she knows all too well, I have very little. Needless to say, any errors in this book are mine alone. Comments are welcome at
[email protected] Published by the Stockholm Network (www.stockholm-network.org) and The TaxPayers’ Alliance (www.taxpayersalliance.com) Price: £10.00 ISBN: 0-9547663-6-9 1 33155_TPA Text 21/2/06 5:36 pm Page 2 “Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed that the field bringeth forth year by year” — Deuteronomy 14:22 (King James Version), endorsing a flat tax “It should be known that at the beginning of a dynasty, taxation yields a large revenue from small assessments.