Part of 1. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:53 pm on 14 March 2017.
With respect, the leader of the house didn’t answer my question. What I was keen to elicit was whether it makes it more or less likely that the Welsh Government will use its powers to vary rates of income tax, put them up rather than down, or vice versa. There is a lot of economic evidence to show that lower tax rates can actually produce higher tax revenues. In the 1980s, when Nigel Lawson reduced taxes, that was the effect. In 1979, the top 1 per cent of earners paid 11 per cent of all tax revenues. By 1997, they paid 21 per cent, despite the fact that the top rate of income tax had been reduced from 83 per cent in the pound to 40 per cent. So, is it not sensible for the Welsh Government to think in terms of making Wales into a kind of tax haven within the United Kingdom?