Members’ Area

Unknown only three years ago, Emmanuel Macron ascended to the presidency of the French Republic without the support of a single traditional political party. An advisor and later a government minister to a very unpopular President, not only he benefited from circumstances that expelled his main rivals from the race, but he also seduced the French people with the charm of his smile and youth. What got him elected, then, was a real “tour de magie”, a magic trick.

Taxes on labour income for the average worker across the OECD continued to decrease for the third consecutive year during 2016, dropping to 36% of labour costs, according to a new OECD report.

The US-based National Taxpayers Union Foundation (NTUF) completed a tax complexity project concluding “…the total economic value of compliance burden of the Tax Code can be valued at $262.632 billion.”

The Slovak-based Institute of Economic and Social Studies (INESS) created and launched in 2016 a Bureaucracy Index. Its goal is to establish a comprehensive list and subsequent cost of bureaucratic burden in a national economy.

April – June 2017

Dear WTA Members, Observers, and Friends:
I wanted to wait until after our Regional Taxpayers Forum in Zagreb before sending this quarter’s Update so it is a month late, but we’ll get back on track in July.

Gia Jandieri, Vice-President of the New Economic School – Georgia, is asking the international delegates to sign a coalition letter in favor of maintaining the Economic Liberty Act untouched.

Taxpayers’ Alliance Ghana has just launched a new website.

The TaxPayers’ Alliance and Institute of Economic Affairs have put together ten decisive policy proposals to address the long-standing economic challenges the UK economy will face over the coming years.

The Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance backed up by the members of WTA successfully urged the government to scrap a proposed 10% tax on consumers buying goods over the internet from overseas.

The Taxpayers Association of Ukraine (TAU) is working hard to propose a new tax code for the country that will benefit both taxpayers and business and attract foreign investment.

The European Resource Bank held its 2017 meeting in April in Podgorica, Montenegro. Congratulations to Maryan Zablotskyy of the WTA member Ukrainian Economic Freedoms Foundation who won this year’s Dragon’s Den competition for his Wikipermit project which tracks government permits.