The claim that Labour’s tax plans are ‘not credible’ is based on ideology, not fact | Paul Mason

The Institute for Fiscal Studies seems unable to imagine an economic model that is different from the one we have

The Institute for Fiscal Studies on Thursday gifted the rightwing tabloids a key argument against Labour's plan to raise taxes. "Not credible "" say the headlines, as if the entire proposal had been rubbished.

Dig deeper, and the claim is actually far more specific than that. The head of the IFS, Paul Johnson, says that it is not credible for all 82bn of Labour's planned increase in tax revenue to come from companies and people earning over 80,000 a year. So instead of the rich and big companies paying for better public services, the argument goes, "we collectively will need to pay for it" - and will pay for it, according to the IFS, through the 44bn rise in taxes on corporations being passed on to shareholders, consumers and workers, in the forms of price increases and cuts to wages.

Only if all companies had an absolute monopoly could they force workers and consumers to bear all the pain of increased taxes

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