Speaking of Corporate Income Taxes...

An article from the Adam Smith Institute on Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond:

You may have overlooked it because it was in the Financial Times last week and there was a lot of other news around. But the new First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond, has called for the devolved nations to come together to reduce corporation tax.

The Scottish National Party leader said it was "hugely important" to cut it to 12.5 per cent, bringing it in line with Ireland.

That rather puts to shame Gordon Brown's pathetic 2% reduction in the tax (no doubt hedged in with all sorts of terms and conditions, once you read the small print). But the fact is that the cut in corporate taxation is one of the reasons – indeed, perhaps the most important reason – why Ireland turned so rapidly from being poorer than the United Kingdom just over a decade ago to being richer than the UK today.

For some time I have thought this would be an intelligent policy for Canada. If Canada had significantly lower corporate income tax rates than the United States, I believe you would see a massive inflow of foreign direct investment into the country, attracted by lower corporate tax rates AND lower health care costs.

Now if only the Canadian dollar could stop rising.