Tax competition is intensifying, thereby forcing overspending governments to act back, within the European Union as well as in other countries around the world. The introduction of new, more competitive and less burdensome types of tax systems such as the "flat tax" in a growing number of Eastern and Central European countries, economic competition from Asia in high value-added sectors, and demographic trends in Western societies are all reasons to think about alternatives to the usual "tax and spend" policies.

Many discussions about tax competition currently take place at the national, European and global levels. However, these debates often lack a moral defence of tax competition. The arguments used are usually based on short-term interests: the countries that have lowered their taxes defend tax competition, while those that refuse to reduce their excessive spending criticize it. The vocabulary used in discussions on tax competition betrays the prevailing confusion. The tax cartelization and centralization advocated in Europe by the governments who fear competition is called harmonization, whereas the governments who manage to provide government services while taking less resources from the private sector are accused of robbing their neighbours! Similarly, "tax evasion" is being questioned as if individual taxpayers were prisoners of their governments.

Tax competition is nothing more than the competition between different tax systems. Economically, it is a good way to promote efficiency (be it within administrations or by returning more resources to the private sector); morally, it is a way to maximize individual choice and lead to greater respect for individual property rights; and politically, a way to limit the expansionist tendency of governments at the expense of civil society.

Pierre Bessard is political editor of L'Agefi, the Swiss financial daily newspaper. He occasionally writes for the weekly magazine Die Weltwoche, the journal Reflexion, and the comment and analysis web site Tech Central Station. He is the author of several essays, among which "Kapitalismus im aktuellen Bundesstaat - Die eigentlichen Marktlösungen wider den Markt der Eitelkeiten", published in: Kapitalismus: Fluch oder Segen? (Tito Tettamanti, ed., Zurich: Jean Frey, Bilanz, 2004).

He has founded the Institut Constant de Rebecque, the Lake Geneva region's first free-market think tank, chaired by Victoria Curzon Price, the current president of the Mont Pelerin Society. He launched in October 2005 the Center for Tax Competition, a normative observatory and analytical center on tax policy, which works as an offshoot of the Institut Constant de Rebecque.

Pierre Bessard has won a Media Prize for Financial Journalism from Private, KPMG, Sarasin, Citco Fund Advisors, and Jefferies. He also received the 2004 Jaguar Prize from Geneva's Young Liberals. He studied business management at Marymount Manhattan College, Syracuse University (New York), and the Shanghai-Syracuse School of International Business (Shanghai). In parallel to his studies, he attended seminars in political economy at the Ludwig von Mises Institute (Alabama) and the Foundation for Economic Education (New York).

Date
Thursday 23 February 2006

Schedule
19h00: Beer and Pizza
19h30: Speaker

Moderator
Mattias Bengtsson, CNE President

Location
Centre for the New Europe
23 rue du Luxembourg
1000 Brussels

The CNE Political Advisers Forum is Brussels' leading venue for "free beer, free pizza and free trade". It also provides an environment for like-minded PAs to meet and network.

Space is limited, so please notify
Cécile Philippe
if you'll be coming this month!