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Comment by mojuba | Hacker News Reader

And for anyone not familiar with what's likely going on behind the scenes: it's about lowering the corporation tax in the UK. I don't know whether this is a new idea or not, but it would give the UK the leverage it needs in negotiations; will persuade many multinational corporations to stay and will even attract new ones.

However, there will be a lot of pain for ordinary people in the interim. Not for corporations though. it seems.

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> will persuade many multinational corporations to stay and will even attract new ones

No. To have access to the EU single market, your company MUST have its main base of operation be in a EU member state.

Leaving the single market doesn't mean no access at all, it's just tariffs and some bureaucracy. Not that I support all this, but the Govt. seems to be hoping that becoming a tax haven will compensate all that.

Yes, because becoming a tax haven has always done wonders for shifting money from the uber rich to the working class people. /sarc

The UK really needs to sort out it's internal policies and spread the wealth around the country and the not just keep pushing "the London agenda"

This is not true in many industries, due to supranational regulation. MAT insurance (a huge financial product the UK exports to the EU) is exempt from this rule due to WTO regulation.

Furthermore, 'main base of operation' is pretty vague, and I don't believe it accurately reflects EU requirements. A subsidiary can be based in an EU country and provide you with all the access you would like. This isn't an option for smaller companies, but for larger ones its just an extra cost.

Northern Ireland is set to lower its rates to 12.5% [1] to compete with the Republic, I can see the entire UK following suit at some point during May's term with abolishing all corporate tax rates before 2025.

[1] - http://www.arthurcox.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Projecte...

Not likely now that we've dissolved our government.

Again.

I think both the Netherlands and Ireland will be happy to compete with that. And they have single market access.

Not sure the UK has the cost structure that'd allow being a true tax haven. Lower corporate tax alone won't make everyone move/stay.

Except reality, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/brexit-banks...

That article is from 23 October 2016. The tax haven talks are relatively new. I first heard about it as being part of the plan just a few days ago, from British media.

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