Here we go again.The Daily Telegraphis reporting that Treasury officials are “drawing up plans” for a pensions tax raid in the autumn to help pay for Covid. It might be more accurate to say that old plans are now being ‘dusted off’, but the quality of debate does not seem to have improved.
For a start, it is wrong to assume that taxes have to rise at all. We could, and probably should, regard the increase in government spending and borrowing during the pandemic as a one-off, and accept that the level of debt will be permanently higher as a result. A strong economic recovery and a bit of inflation will still reduce the burden of that debt (as a share of nominal GDP).
Indeed, thelatest monthly figureson the public finances show that borrowing is continuing to undershoot the OBR’s gloomy forecasts, as it…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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