US Economist Dr. Arthur B. Laffer has suggested that the UK should implement tax measures first introduced by Former US President Ronald Reagan.
Dr. Arthur B. Laffer stated that the UK could benefit from both the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 and the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.
Speaking to GB News, the former member of Reagan's Economic Policy Advisory Board said that the move by the UK government would make Britain's economy "great again".
The Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 was a law which enabled the largest tax cut in American history.
Dr Arthur B. Laffer is the founder and chairman of Laffer Associates, an economic research and consulting firm.
Dr. Laffer’s economic acumen and influence in triggering a worldwide tax-cutting movement in the 1980s have earned him the distinction in many publications as “The Father of Supply-Side Economics.”
Dr Arthur Laffer says the UK could benefit from tax bills implemented by Ronald Reagan
GB News
As part of the legislation, the Reagan administration in Congress lowered the top marginal tax rate from 70 percent to 50 percent.
However, much of it was reversed a year later.
The Laffer Curve is based on a theory by supply-side economist Arthur Laffer. Created in 1974, it visually shows the relationship between tax rates and the amount of tax revenue collected by governments. The curve is often used to illustrate the argument that cutting tax rates can result in increased total tax revenue.
In March 1999, he was noted by Time Magazine as one of “the Century’s Greatest Minds” for his invention of the Laffer curve, which has been called one of “a few of the advances that powered this extraordinary century.”
Speaking to exclusively GBN America, Dr. Arthur B. Laffer told host Jacob Rees-Mogg that the UK is trying to be "much more woke" with their economic policies.
Dr. Arthur B. Laffer added that he once worked with Margaret Thatcher, and admitted he "wishes the UK would do better".
Dr Arthur B Laffer receives the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom by Donald Trump in 2019
Wikipedia
Dr Laffer explained: "Your policies are trying to be much more woke and much more socially oriented.
"I worked with Trump. Those bills, the Tax Cuts and Job Act worked perfectly. It paid for itself quickly. It in fact it led to an increase in revenues."
Dr Laffer continued: "It led to a reduction in poverty of all the impoverished groups, the poor, the minorities, the disenfranchised. It led to exceptional growth as well.
"That bill worked wonderfully under Trump just the way it did under Reagan. I mean the first bill we had in 1981, and then we had the 1986 Tax Act, which you know under Reagan we cut the highest tax rate down from 70% to 28%. We cut the corporate rate from 46% to 34%. I mean, we really did amazing cuts."
Donald Trump implemented the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017
Reuters
Dr Laffer said of the UK's state of economy: "The capital gains tax rate came way down as well. We went from 11 tax brackets to two tax brackets.
"I mean, it was an amazing thing and it just worked wonderfully in the US, and by the way, it could still work wonderfully in Britain if only you'd put it through.
"Thatcher dropped the highest rate, if I remember correctly, the highest recorded tax rate in Britain at that time was something like 98% before she came in. And I think we reduced it down to about 40 percent, 40P.
"And then of course you got Brown who popped it from 40P to 50P and all hell broke loose and ruined the economy, and then you dropped it back to 45. But it should be much lower."
Dr. Laffer has authored over twenty books, including the New York Times bestseller, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of States (Wiley 2014), and Taxes Have Consequences: An Income Tax History of the United States, released by Post Hill Press in September 2022.