Osborne's plan to cut corporation tax

To keep companies in Britain after the Brexit vote the British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has pledged to cut the UK's corporation tax from its current 20 percent to below 15 percent, giving it the lowest rate of all the major economies. Can this prevent the negative repercussions of the Brexit?

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L'Echo (BE) /

Tax cuts are jumping the gun

It's risky to announce a cut in corporate tax so soon, L'Echo warns:

“The attempt to prevent capital flight is understandable. However with it the chancellor of the exchequer is playing the sensitive card of tax competition - even before negotiations have begun. ... By bringing up the topic, the British government risks putting its partners off right from the start. That is counterproductive. Ten days after the referendum the masterminds of the Brexit have scurried off with their tails between their legs. Ten days after the referendum those politicians who remain are running around in a panic even before the game gets underway. ... Ten days after the referendum it is already time for the British to tackle the various scenarios for revoking their bad decision: a vote in parliament, new elections, a new referendum? It's not too late.”

L'Opinion (FR) /

Brits trying to save their skins

The British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne is trying to soften the repercussions of the disastrous promises made during the Brexit campaign, L'Opinion comments:

“Now that the Britsh are out, they're ready to cede to the temptation of fiscal dumping to save their skins once they no longer belong to the single market. ... The apprentice sorcerers of seclusion always forget that barriers isolate more than they protect, that they trigger reprisals more than they stimulate growth. To export you have to import. To get out you have to let people in. To prosper you have to trade. The most dangerous form of dumping is electoral dumping. It consists of instrumentalising fears and denying economic realities. 'Regaining control' comes down to deciding for yourself the terms of your own decline.”