Finance committee  You're very welcome.

Finance committee  I wouldn't think it was the EU subsidies; I would think it's partly the tax. The other big thing, as Professor Brooks said, was the fact that Ireland joined the European Union, and thus it was a location in which firms could establish themselves and have access to the whole of th

Finance committee  I think it's difficult, because when people are deciding where they want to live, they're not only thinking about how much tax they get but also about what the cost of living is. One thing that can happen in countries where people pay somewhat more tax is that they also get somew

Finance committee  The experience in Europe is that there is a certain amount of cross-border shopping when there are countries that have very significantly different rates of tax. But it's usually a very limited phenomenon, because the difference in value-added tax rates between neighbouring count

Finance committee  I don't think you can say that there's any corporate tax rate where a further reduction wouldn't encourage additional investment. What I think is that there are some countries where changing the corporate tax rate doesn't make much difference, but those are countries with very we

Finance committee  Sir, we know that when companies are investing they look at the social security contributions they have to pay. We don't know whether they look at the benefits. But I would assume that they do look at the benefits, yes.

Finance committee  I've never thought of it in that way. But certainly I think that environmentally related taxes, particularly ones that are closely related to carbon, are a very good way of trying to become compliant with the Kyoto Protocol.

Finance committee  Yes, we do have evidence that they change behaviour.

Finance committee  I think it's not possible to simply look at the tax ratios and talk only about, for example, the level of income or the instance of poverty, because there are so many other things that affect that. But what you can do is compare the progress different countries are making and try

Finance committee  We do have statistics. I can't tell you exactly which countries were the very lowest, but I know they would include countries such as Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and probably Norway. These are countries with tax-to-GDP ratios that are considerably higher than Canada's.

Finance committee  Well, I'm not familiar with the Canadian scheme. The current scheme in the U.K. is tax free, yes. You put in money you've paid tax on and you don't pay any tax on the return, but there is quite a low limit on the amount you can put in.

Finance committee  No, it's open-ended. You can withdraw the money at any time.

Finance committee  I'm afraid I don't have the figures on the revenue loss to the government.

Finance committee  There is a difference, which is that the personal income tax is more progressive than the consumption tax.

Finance committee  That is correct.