WTA Blog

On October 2nd, the Tax Foundation released the 2019 International Tax Competitiveness Index, which compares OECD countries on over 40 variables that measure how well each country’s tax system promotes sustainable economic growth and investment.

Thanks to the efforts of my team at the TaxPayers’ Alliance’s efforts, plans to increase probate fees up to £6,000 have been scrapped. On October 12th the Justice Secretary Robert Buckland announced that a proposed rise in probate fees had been abolished. This is another huge victory for the TPA and taxpayers. It is terrific news that the justice minister has put the final nail in the coffin for this hated stealth death tax.

Each year Contribuables Associés issues a ranking of MPs – this time a positive one, looking at those who have championed taxpayers.

A Financial Times event gathered regulators, policy makers, academics and senior industry leaders in Prague to discuss the role, principles and impact of “better regulation”. After an address to the event by Andrej Babiš, Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, John O’Connell, Chairman and President of World Taxpayers Associations took to the stage with:

Save the date! On November 13th Asociación de Contribuyentes del Perú is celebrating their second Taxpayers Regional Forum in Peru. If you happen to be in Peru, put it on your agenda.
You can register here.

On 10 September, the German Taxpayers’ Association celebrated its 70th birthday in Berlin in front of around 700 invited guests from politics, business, science, culture and with its members.
The keynote speaker was none other than Federal Chancellor Dr Angela Merkel. Her presence was important in several respects. In her speech, she praised the work of the Taxpayers’ Association, she stressed the necessity of tax cuts which was a great vote of confidence in our work.

On October 23, the National Taxpayers Union celebrated its 50th Anniversary with a gala dinner in Washington, DC featuring more than 300 guests from the organization’s past and present. Lawmakers, state governors, and other public officials were in attendance to view a video on the history of NTU — including an interview from the year 1974 of the organization’s founder on the famous American television program “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.”

Dear WTA members, observers and friends:

Next WTA events:

Taxpayers Regional Forum in Kyiv Ukraine May 16, 2020

The first WTA-sponsored Regional Taxpayers Forum of 2020 will take place in Kyiv, Ukraine, May 16th.

In May 2020 World Taxpayers Associations along with the Atlas Network and the Ukrainian Economic Freedoms Foundation is pleased to invite delegates to join us in an exchange of ideas and best practices to advance taxpayer advocacy in Europe.

According to the calculations made by Contribuables Associés, the French taxpayers’ association, the ratio between public expenditure (State, local authorities, social security, European Union) and the wealth created in France (GDP) is 55.6% in 2019.

Tax Freedom Day in Austria was August 5th, according to the Austrian Economics Center.
Tax Freedom Day was July 1st in 1976. Since then, the tax burden has grown significantly, pushing the date to August 20th in 2001 and August 19th in 2015.