7
Friday sees the beginning of this year’s G7 Meeting, which is being held in Cornwall. This week’s Thoughts for the day will focus on some of the topics that will (or should) come up at that meeting. Last week, ahead of the meeting, there was agreement among Finance Ministers to set a minimum rate of Corporation Tax. There are still various hoops to go through before this becomes a world-wide agreement, and no doubt accountants are already seeking ways to avoid paying more. I suspect that for most people it is one of those topics that cause the eyes to glaze over – they don’t understand it, or it sounds like a complete ‘turn-off’. But it could have an impact for many of us. If it leads to increased government revenue from taxation, how will that money be spent? Will it be used to cut the deficit, or will it go on things like health and education? Will companies absorb the extra tax and cut their profits, or will we see higher/new charges for customers of some companies? Will it have any impact on improving conditions in poorer countries? Do we leave all such questions to the ‘experts’, or should our input be heard too?
Lord, international finance and global corporations are topics that many of us struggle to understand, so we tend to leave them to ‘the experts’. But such topics have an impact on us – sometimes directly, sometimes indirectly. Help us to pay more attention to them, and to be ready to express our views to the ‘decision-makers’. Inspire the ‘decision-makers’ to make choices that move the world in the direction you would like it to go
