Policy Centre Jersey has launched Think Pieces

The Policy Centre Jersey is adding to its range of resources with a series of “think pieces”.  The think pieces will be short evidence-based papers relevant to public policy in Jersey.  The first think piece is “Principles for Tax Policy”, written by the Centre’s Research Adviser, Mark Boleat.  This notes that although Jersey has seven agreed principles on tax policy, in practice debates on tax proposals tend to be narrowly focussed.  The paper draws on the work of Paul Johnson, Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies,  who notes that one of the great failures of tax policymaking is that it happens in a series of silos with no regard for what the overall impact might be. He argues that “we shouldn’t look for every tax to do everything. As long as the tax and benefit system as a whole is progressive, not every tax needs to be.”  In respect of Jersey, the paper concludes that tax proposals should be accompanied by an analysis of the impact on different groups and include a clear statement of –

• The objective of the proposal.
• The likely effect of the proposal.
• The costs of implementing the proposal.
• Alternative means of achieving the same objective.

Visit the Think Pieces page.

Visit the Principles for Tax Policy paper.