Tax – The Green Tau

Counting on … 174

28th October 2025

Private Jets -1

The International Council of Clean Transport report on greenhouse gas pollution found that private jets accounted for only 2%-4% of annual aviation emissions. (1) Are private jets as a sub sector of the aviation industry worth targeting?

Would limiting (eg by higher taxation) or banning private jets be a popular move for a government? Are the people who fly in private jets people a significant group within the electorate?

Are those who can afford private jets, also paying large amounts in tax – or are private jets tax deductible?

Are they movers and shakers in driving the economy and creating jobs?

Does the private jet industry itself create a significant number of jobs?

The current Labour government has increased air passenger duty (APD) which includes ordinary commercial flights and flights on private jets. The tax on the latter is increasing by 50% such that the most expensive rate for private jet flyers will increase from £607 to £673 in 2025, reaching £1,141 per passenger by April 2026.

“Those individuals who travel in larger more luxurious private jets may see a bigger increase,” the government said. “The additional increase to the higher rates ensures that APD costs as a proportion of the hiring costs for private jets are more in line with APD on commercial airlines as a proportion of airfares. The increase to the higher rate will ensure that users of private jets continue to make a fair contribution to the public finances.” (2)

Will this be sufficient to curb private jet flights?

The Green Party has proposed “a ban on all private jets taking off or landing at UK airports. They say this form of transportation, favoured by a super-rich elite, is the ultimate symbol of ‘climate inequality’ where the richest 1% of the population produce as much planet warming pollution each year as 5 billion people making up the poorest two-thirds of the global population.” (3)

(1) https://theicct.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/ID-349-–-Private-jets_report_final.pdf

(2) https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/budget-2024-private-jet-tax-rise-b2638927.html

(3) https://greenparty.org.uk/2023/11/28/green-party-calls-for-ban-on-private-jets-the-ultimate-symbol-of-climate-inequality/

Information on campaign groups opposing private jets

Campaigns

https://action.greenpeace.org.uk/ban-private-jets

Climate activists blockade Farnborough private jet airport’s three main gates

Counting on … day 143

15th September 2025

Climate inequalities don’t have to be accepted. Change is possible. Friends of the Earth have produced a report entitles the Big Climate Plan detailing what could be done in the UK to address climate inequalities. (1) And they have produced another report showing how the costs could be met by taxing those causing the climate crisis (2)

“The “polluter pays” principle is the idea that those most responsible for emissions and pollution should pay the most towards tackling them. The “polluter pays” principle is the idea that those most responsible for emissions and pollution should pay the most towards tackling them.“

(1) https://cdn.friendsoftheearth.uk/sites/default/files/downloads/Fairness Report_Friends_of_the_Earth_Digital.pdf

(2) https://friendsoftheearth.uk/climate/taxing-polluters-pay-climate-action

Counting on … day 44

3rd March 2025

Most new technology seeks to reduce the effort needed to complete a task. This can mean automation or semi automation, and often leads to a reduction in job opportunities. Sometimes we might as a society wish to reflect on this: would it be better to have more manual jobs and less unemployment? Would it be better to have hand made bread rather than factory made bread? And if so would we be prepared to pay more for our bread? (Interestingly we have in recent years been willing to pay more for hand-made cups of coffee.)

Would it be better to sweep roads with brooms rather than with motorised road sweeping vehicles? Might this be cheaper as it would not require electricity to recharge the vehicle?

Would it be cheaper than the contribution made through taxes for unemployment benefit?

(Returning to coffee – are taxes being used to pay benefits to those on low pay eg baristas)

Counting on …. Day 21

21st January 2024

Mail order with care

As is so often the case, making ethical or ecological choices are seldom black and white. For example, does one buy the organic but imported carrots or the UK grown non-organic carrots?

Having given the arguments in favour of shopping locally, there will be times when what is needed is not locally available. Mail order often fills this niche.

I buy flour for bread making by mail order – the flour is organic, chosen for attributes that make it suitable for bread-making, is milled in a wind mill and comes from farms local to the mill!

One mail order company that has expanded rapidly is Amazon. It is a multi national company which uses less than ethically sound business practices. Ethical Consumer has written on this at length and has set up a boycott including the option for individuals to pledge a month at a time not to use Amazon.

https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/company-profile/amazoncom-inc

The Guardian also reports frequently on ethical issues relating to Amazon – https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/may/10/next-day-delivery-unethical-amazon-workers-pollution?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Windows of Opportunity

23rd December 2023

Pay taxes

Paying taxes is an essential part of maintaining safe and sustainable societies. Taxation pays for the public services which benefit the whole of society. Avoiding paying tax is destructive of societies and therefore of individual lives. Avoiding tax – whether as an individual or as a company – is wrong but is is the tax avoidance by large multinational companies that probably causes the most harm.

Ethical Consumer writes “Tax avoidance is shifting profits so you have to pay a lower rate of taxes. It involves using loop holes in tax systems so that you can reduce rates in a way that law makers never intended but which is entirely legal. Often, this means registering sales that took place in one country with a company based in another, where tax-rates are lower. For example, in 2017 Amazon registered almost 75% of its UK sales through a Luxembourg based subsidiary. Tax evasion is hiding profits or fiddling accounts in order to avoid taxes, and is definitely illegal. In 2017, it was estimated that globally tax avoidance was losing nations over $500 billion a year.

“In the UK, tax avoidance is channelling much needed money away from the NHS, housing and other vital forms of public infrastructure. But the cost of tax avoidance is even greater in poor nations. In countries where wages – and accordingly individual income taxes – are low, a far higher proportion of government revenue comes from corporate taxation. This can be as much as 16%, compared to 8% in richer countries.

“If looked at in proportion to GDP, the countries that lose the most from tax shifting are consistently the poorest. In Chad, during 2017, the estimated losses to profit shifting were larger than all of the (non-resource) taxes collected in the country that year.” (1)

In a report published in 2010 Christian Aid estimated “that just two forms of tax dodging, transfer mispricing and false invoicing, cost developing countries US$160 billion every year…roughly one and half times the world’s annual aid budget.” (2)

Not paying corporate taxes also affects the UK’s tax revenue. Corporate Tax News reported this summer that “Amazon’s main UK division, Amazon UK Services, has once again avoided paying corporation tax, thanks to tax credits received for its investments in infrastructure. While the company’s pretax profits and sales have increased, there are concerns about the lack of transparency around its total profits and tax contributions. Critics argue that Amazon’s ability to avoid taxes gives the company an unfair advantage over local businesses. The controversy has highlighted the need for more transparency and fair taxation practices from multinational companies operating in the UK.” And “Amazon invested £12 billion in the UK in 2021. This included £1.6 billion spent on infrastructure, such as more robotics for warehouses and a software development center in Swansea. The company’s sales across its entire UK network also increased by £1 billion, making it larger than Asda, the UK’s third-largest supermarket. Amazon claims that it paid a total of £781 million in taxes in the UK, including business rates, employer’s national insurance contributions, and corporation tax. However, critics argue that this figure does not provide a clear picture of Amazon’s tax contributions, especially when considering the tax credits received in the UK and other European countries.” (3)

Turn this round. Just think how more money could be invested in public services, in tackling the climate crisis, and in addressing global injustices, if all the taxes that should be paid, were paid!

The UN is one of the forums where global tax legislation could be reformed. “Developing nations could have a greater say over global tax rules after winning a diplomatic tussle at the United Nations in New York on Wednesday. A new resolution, agreed by UN members, gives the body a mandate to kickstart intergovernmental talks on tax. The policy area has long been dominated by the Paris-headquartered Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a body largely formed of wealthy countries including the US, UK and Japan. The resolution, presented by the African Group, ultimately paves the way for a UN convention on taxation and a new global tax body, according to campaigners…The resolution was fiercely opposed by some western diplomats behind the scenes in New York, officials on both sides of the debate around the UN’s role on tax affairs said. Some rich nations, including the US, had fought against the resolution in an attempt to maintain a tighter grip on global tax rules. Campaigners want international agreement on measures such as a floor for corporate tax rates, so countries cannot undercut one another, and forcing multinationals to report how much tax they pay in each country.” (4) One of the key campaign groups is the Tax Justice Network – https://taxjustice.net/

In the UK the Fair Tax Foundation campaigns on this issue. “Tax contributions are a key part of the positive social and economic impact made by business – helping the communities in which they operate to deliver valuable public services and to build the infrastructure that allows business to thrive. Via our Fair Tax Mark accreditation scheme, we seek to encourage and recognise businesses that pay the right amount of corporate income tax at the right time and in the right place. We believe that businesses that pay their taxes willingly, fairly and transparently should be celebrated and rewarded.” (4)

As “Fair Tax is at the heart of a fair society, a strong economy and a functioning democracy.” The Fair Tax Foundation also runs a pledge scheme where by individuals and small traders – http://fairtaxpledge.uk/