You may be reading this and be a
resident in Italy whilst driving round a car with UK number plates. (Hopefully
you are not reading this whilst driving, but I think you understand my
point!)
Up until BREXIT this would have been
fine as long as your insurance allowed you unlimited travel in the EU, and as
long as you got the necessary annual MOT or EU equivalent.
However things may be about to
change.
I have spoken with some of you over the
summer who have told me that your insurance was up for renewal post BREXIT and
that the insurance companies are now tightening up their terms and conditions
and reducing the allowable time of travel in the EU, back down to the old 3
month limit.
The insurance companies quote the
unreliability of BREXIT negotiations as their reasons for concern.
So, it is worth checking, if you use
a UK registered car in Italy on an unlimited time basis, as to whether you will
be allowed to continue to take advantage of this arrangement moving
ahead.
Let's give a big thumbs up to
Europe
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No matter what you may think about
Britain and the EU's relationship, we have to give the EU a big round of
applause this week regarding their decision to tax Apple €13bn in light of
their preferential tax arrangements in Ireland.
I will let it be known here and now
that I am not a fan of trickle down economics. It does not work. The
idea that we allow large corporates and already wealthy individuals to amass
huge sums of money with preferential tax arrangements with the view that they
will invest this money, build more companies, create more jobs etc and this
will filter down to me and you and make us all more wealthy, is a philosophy
that just does not work.
The figures support this. At
current standing corporate America holds $1.2 trillion in offshore accounts
on which they pay no tax. This is money which they have earned in countries
throughout the world, but through clever accounting can pay little to no tax
on and choose whether to keep offshore or pay tax by repatriating it onshore.
It comes as no surprise that they prefer the latter option.
It was reported that the €13bn
which the EU has ordered Apple to pay back to Ireland in the ruling this
week, would pay for the entire health service in Ireland for one whole
year.
Wealth equality is at its all-time
worst levels.
In the 1970's approximately 70% of
the world’s wealth was spread between approximately 30% of the world’s
population. This is not a good ratio.
Now, approximately 96% of the world’s
wealth is spread between just 3% of the world’s people.
This is clearly unacceptable and I
believe, in part, has a lot to do with the rising far right in many countries
around the world, and which was one of many factors leading to BREXIT. The UK
has one of the developed world’s worst wealth inequality ratios. Italy is not
much better.
As one person in London said to me
last week: "You sound as though you are a raging socialist".
I replied, "I don't consider myself a socialist, but just a fair
capitalist. That means that everyone has to have the same opportunity
for a bite at the pie".
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