@Daniel_ThomasG
IF BRITAIN’S exit from the EU goes horribly wrong, the U.K. government has hinted at a contingency plan: radically reduce corporate tax rates, turning Britain into a tax haven for international companies. In a January interview with a German newspaper, Britain’s inance minister, Philip Hammond, suggested that if the EU were to impose damaging trade barriers, the U.K. would have to slash its corporate tax rate to protect the economy. “The British people are not going to lie down and say, ‘Too bad, we’ve been wounded,’” he said.
The idea that one of Europe’s largest economies could turn itself into a tax haven has sparked outrage from senior EU igures, who say Britain is already a de facto tax haven. Since 2007, Britain has reduced its corporate tax rate from 30 percent to 20 percent—the lowest of the G-7 group of major economies—and it will fall to 17 percent by 2020, the lowest in the G-20.