We are all Europeans, Henry, whether we like it or not
You could probably say that about any other country including the UK. For example, the sainted Germans are not averse to a bit of tax evasion themselves judging by the numbers of them who have been found with Swiss bank accounts recently. Having dealt with the Italians in business for more than 30yrs, you really need to distinguish between northern Italy, where the vast majority of the wealth is generated and taxes paid, and southern Italy where the vast majority of govt spending seems to disappear so tarring all Italians with the same brush is a bit unfair. In fact, in my experience, the Italian tax system is often more rigorously applied than ours and certainly N Italian companies are far more diligent about their tax accounting than many UK companies!
Well, no one knows but I'd be more worried about the current account; we won't be importing much as either GBP will be down the toilet or that long expected rise in interest rates (then required) will crush off any consumer optimism.
Totally o/t now, but does anyone know if there's a way with the current forum interface to understand to whom a post is meant to reply?
I disagree with that, sort of.
In the vision of those who inspired the EU foundation, money was the last of their concerns - or better said, it was, but only in the very long run.
In fact, the EMU was originally envisaged just as a wooden horse for going towards a full flagged political union, which not only was the true target, but also a necessary implication of the EMU.
And some of these folks were true statesmen, capable to look at the next generations - in sharp contrast with the politicians, who look at the next elections.
Nowadays, we are surrounded by politicians.
Some of them see the cost of each Country contribution as an opportunity to leverage their personal position/power, and they do their best to exploit such opportunity - btw, don't do the mistake of thinking that this happens only in the UK.
As a result, citizens who normally wouldn't care less about the EU and its mechanisms (contributions included), listen to these politicians screaming and decide that avoiding to use "our" money to support "them" is an appealing proposition. And the very same goes for migrants.
Of course, none of these politicians (nor the respectable citizens who support them) would think of dumping their garbage over the fence of their neighbours, would they?
But for some reason, they think it's appropriate to do exactly the same on a much larger scale, for the whole Country.
In this respect, again talking (at risk of generalizing, obviously) of the similarities between EU citizens, British have more in common with Germans than with us further south, who would rather do the opposite...
Now, that's a connoisseur comment, if I've ever seen one! :encouragement:
and that would lead me to London probably in conjunction with Holland and / or Luxembourg etc.
I very much doubt it. If you're concerned about taxation, you should appreciate that the EU wants to move towards a harmonised taxation regime which should make it more difficult for companies to avoid tax so on this basis you should be voting to stay in the EU. Speaking personally, I think this is a very bad idea because a harmonised taxation regime will only ever lead to taxes being harmonised upwards and IMHO tax competition between countries is a damned good idea in order to keep taxes under control
Ok, but Boots is a long way from the old corner shop chemist you might have been thinking of...it is part of Wallgreens Boots Alliance with a turnover in excess of $100 bio...I had no idea Boots were involved in tax schemes.
Henry