With Tim Cook being fried on Capitol Hill, it is perhaps ironic that the issue of taxes is front-and-center in the European parliament today. However, as usual, the always-willing-to-tell-the-truth Nigel Farage points out the gross hypocrisy of a political elite calling for higher taxes (on the wealthy and more broadly in peripheral nations) when the reality is that the higher-ups in the European parliament have their marginal tax rates capped at 12%. Of course, none of that matters because stocks are rising and interest rates are falling; but perhaps the 60% of Greek youth or 57% of Spanish youth, as we discussed here [8], might be intrigued at the new normal idea of 'fair share' in Europe.
And I hope that the taxpayers all over Europe listen to this. If we look at the EU officials who work for the European Commission and the European Parliament, the highest category [the most common grade is AD12] are people that earn a net take home pay of just over 100 thousand pounds a year. And yet under EU rules they pay tax of 12 per cent. It is tax fraud on an absolutely massive scale.
And Mr Barroso I would say to you, how can that be deemed to be fair? How can people out there struggling - the 16 million people unemployed in the eurozone - how can they look at these institutions, not only paying people vast sums of money but allowing them tax and pension benefits on a scale not seen anywhere else in the world? So I suggest we have a bit less of this high moral tone.
And what have these officials given us? Well, they were the architects of the euro, which is a complete disaster. Their obsession with global warming which chimes very strongly here means we are despoiling our landscapes and seascapes with these disgusting wind turbines and driving up energy prices.
