YOUR business columnist Pinstripe (“How to make tax revenue and not alienate people”, The Herald, November 23) asks "what to tax?" Not business, they create wealth and jobs. Not the wealthy, they'll just move away.
And Iain McWhirter says income tax is "toxic" (“Lifting this freeze is too hot to handle”, The Herald, November 24). They are both missing a trick.
We should tax the value of land. Land can't move away and it can't hide offshore. We could introduce a local land value tax and fund more of our local services from the revenue raised. We could even cut income tax and business tax. We would be taxing productive behaviour less, and non-productive behaviour more.
Surely that is a way to beat the fiscal trap?
Colin MacKenzie,
172 Wilton Street, Glasgow.
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