Members’ Area

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.

Tax Freedom Day is the day when a nation as a whole has earned enough money to pay its total tax bill for the year. It is a useful way of representing how large a nation’s tax burden is compared to the size of its economy.

On occasion of World Intellectual Property Rights Day April 26th, the Property Rights Alliance(PRA) penned a letter signed by 54 global partners (including many WTA members).

Following the success slightly over a year ago of the satirical “Coalition of Obsolete Industries” campaign going internationally viral, The Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance has produced a sequel!

The sequel targets a proposal by the Victorian State Government to impose a $2 tax on all rides to fund a bailout of the taxi industry followed by the introduction of Uber and features people in costume calling for new taxes to bail out town criers, the telegram industry, horseshoe makers etc. A tax on tires to bail out the horseshoe makers etc.

From: Staffan Wennberg, Chairman of WTA

One thought I would like to leave with you is that direct marketing to be successful is almost more mathematics than creativity. Keeping track, analyzing the results on different files. So when working with a consultant on this or hiring someone – rather get the careful, mathematically-oriented person than the brilliantly creative one!