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So far Bob has created 133 blog entries.

Rishi Sunak’s minimum 15% global corporation tax rate may have failed, but the Kremlin has stuck the boot in (inadvertently)

Original Brexit-Watch.org article

Our Brexit-Watch.org article last week showed how tax-leveraged leasing through Ireland was a major contributor to the BigTech and Biotech companies minimizing their corporation tax payments:https://www.brexit-watch.org/irelands-fear-of-depending-on-foreign-companies-tax-receipts-is-unfounded-for-the-wrong-reasonsWhilst Rishi Sunak’s much-trumpeted minimum 15% global corporation tax rate won’t have any effect at all, the Kremlin has intervened by passing a law that re-registers 500+ aircraft […]

National Insurance rise is the working people’s punishment for the failure of Rishi Sunak’s minimum 15% global corporation tax rate

Brexit-Watch.org article of 14 March 2022

Ireland’s corporation tax receipts continue to rise, thanks to their ‘Celtic Tiger’ business model:

https://www.brexit-watch.org/irelands-fear-of-depending-on-foreign-companies-tax-receipts-is-unfounded-for-the-wrong-reasons

This was already costing the UK £10 billion a year in lost corporation tax in 2016:

The UK’s lost GDP and tax revenues

Ireland’s takings have increased by 386% between 2009 and 2021; that implies at least a doubling of the loss to the UK […]

UK adopts European approach to SWIFT sanctions over Russia

Brexit-Watch article where this piece was originally published

The UK’s financial sanctions over the Ukraine invasion fall well short of cutting Russia off SWIFT, maxing out on the usual self-congratulatory hyperbole whilst opening up significant risk. When we should be distinguishing our PR approach from that of the Kremlin, we instead get big-sounding phrases masking deficiencies […]

Scholz needs a SWIFT decision – cut Russia off or lose American bank support for the Eurosystem

What is SWIFT? Screenshot of its homepage

As already published on Facts4EU and Brexit-Watch

It has been reported that Chancellor Scholz has rejected the proposal that Russia be cut off from the SWIFT system as a punishment for its invasion of Ukraine. The Guardian has disseminated misinformation that it would anyway do little damage. Scholz may imagine […]

Who will drain the swamp of English professional football?

As published on Brexit-Watch.org on Friday February 18 2022

Recent news coverage of the football clubs Derby County, Newcastle United and Bolton Wanderers has slightly lifted the veil on the murky financial jiggery-pokery of the English football industry but it goes nowhere near far enough. Further research since my first article on this subject has revealed […]

Kwasi Kwarteng’s British Business Bank wastes at least £5 million of public money by buying a stake in Bolton Wanderers

We have compiled an analysis of the British Business Bank’s investment in Bolton Wanderers via its ‘Future Fund’.

Many questions remain open, such as how much the general public has invested, what shareholding we own, and what rights and obligations are associated with it.

Some of these points are academic: the original £5 million loan, plus accrued […]

There’s a cost-of-living crisis but hey, let’s save football clubs at taxpayers’ expense?!?

First published on brexit-watch.org

Doubts have recently been raised about the financial competence of those who manage the national finances on behalf of all of us. The Chancellor Rishi Sunak has – belatedly some would say – come under fire for the losses to fraud through his Bounce Back Loans scheme: the losses have been estimated […]

Some forgotten Benefits of Brexit that need to be known

Most of my contribution appeared on Facts4EU.org

On the second anniversary of the UK’s leaving the EU, it was worth relecting on what had been gained, even if Theresa May and now Boris Johnson could claim very little credit for it.

Here were my First Eleven of benefits, which made up the bulk of the Facts4EU piece…

Had […]

IREF January 2022 Newsletter – Euro financing, a strategy for EU survival

First published on en.irefeurope.org

In recent times, the EU authority has been challenged by Romania and Poland, both of whom have asserted the primacy of their domestic laws over EU treaty law in certain areas.   Hungary is also a well-known thorn in its side.  Given these threats, and the reputational sleight of the departure of the […]

New EU taxes are vital to cover the cost of its ‘invisible’ Coronavirus Recovery Fund debts – but at what cost to member states?

This article was first published on brexit-watch.org

Facts4EU.Org has revealed that the EU, in Christmas week, floated the concept of new taxes to bring in an amount of €380 billion between 2026 and 2030, of which €85 billion would flow to Brussels. €247 billion of the new taxes are carbon-related, and €133 billion are new taxes […]