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Margareta Pagano: Apple a game-changer again with 'simpler tax' call

I am writing this article on my Apple iMac. Beside me is a skinny capp from Starbucks, and I have already used Google to research information for this piece. Like most of the population, I am queasy about how little tax the trio pay but, while I could boycott the coffee, it's not so easy to do without Apple or Google.

Jim Armitage: Alone and unloved, Swiss provide a salutary lesson for the Eurosceptics

Conservative backbenchers like to cite Switzerland as an example of how it’s possible to trade in Europe while remaining out of the European Union. But within Switzerland itself, this benefit is not quite so apparent. As the noose tightens on the world’s most famous tax evasion mecca, it finds itself increasingly friendless.

Anthony Hilton: Britain’s malaise will last for a while, but at least it’s better than Japan

I remember a conversation with Paul Fisher in his office deep in the bowels of the Bank of England one day last summer when he said Japan was still struggling after 20 years to get back on its feet following its financial crash so we should not expect too much too soon from the United Kingdom.

Anthony Hilton: Byrne’s right on pension funds – bigger is better

To Birmingham for an interesting speech from Liam Byrne – he who as a member of the Labour Government Treasury team famously left the note after the 2010 election warning the incoming Chancellor there was no money left.

Anthony Hilton: Gilbert deserves credit, not brickbats

Mr Gilbert... stuck with the group and has got it back on an even keel

Ben Chu: Why isn't a global tax on multinational profits on the agenda for G8?

Outlook Big Brother watched you. And Google? Google just loves you. The internet search leviathan's boss Eric Schmidt told us so this week. "Google will continue to invest in the UK no matter what you guys do," he told the audience at the company's annual Big Tent shindig this week. "We love you guys too much".

Ben Chu: So the deficit did rise last year after all

Outlook The Treasury this week hailed the fact that data from the Office for National Statistics showed that "underlying borrowing" is now falling. But did it? If you strip out factors such as gilt coupon payments from the Bank of England and transfers from the Royal Mail pension fund, borrowing in April 2013 was £10.2bn, up £1.3bn on the £8.9bn borrowed in April 2012. Ah, but what about the £2.3bn profits from the Bank of England's wound-down Special Liquidity Scheme (SLS)? They were paid over to the Treasury in April 2012 and thus flattered that month's borrowing figures. So disregard those profits for April 2012 and the comparison with April 2013 looks better, showing a £1bn fall in borrowing.

Ben Chu: This was Plan B all right

Outlook Some commentators are saying the IMF's advice to Mr Osborne this week did not amount to a call for the Chancellor to adopt an economic Plan B. I beg to differ. The IMF did not say the Government should merely permit the automatic stabilisers to function – which is what Mr Osborne means when he talks about his plan's flexibility. It did not say the Treasury should cut more to allow more infrastructure spending, enabling the overall deficit programme to continue at the same pace. What the IMF said is that the UK should not cut the structural deficit this financial year. At all.

Hamish McRae: Quietly optimistic about growth, in spite of the IMF

Economic View: Let's not get excited, but if the big three keep on bringing in the bacon, the Government will be able to get the deficit down

James Moore: While RBS and Lloyds are just capital, speculation starts about the small fry

Outlook Remember when the Bank of England said Britain's banks were short of £25bn? Pfah. Storm in a teacup. Nothing to see here, move along.

James Moore: The IMF is backing a plan B for Britain

Outlook Talking of the IMF, its main reason for being in town yesterday was to give its view on the current state of the UK's economy.

Simon English: M&S glory days in the past? Bolland has little time to prove otherwise

Outlook How long has Marc Bolland got? About a year, seems the consensus, so that he can at least give undeniable evidence that his Marks & Spencer turnaround is actually turning.

Simon English: Politics will decide Royal Mail float price

Outlook Royal Mail plumped itself up for joining the stock market yesterday with some flashy looking operating profits.

Simon English: Vodafone's tax talk is just a nuisance call

Outlook Large companies that spend so much on public relations and marketing, and worry so much about how they appear, don't half make a hash of it when they talk about tax.

Day In a Page

Andrew Mitchell: 'It's no good feeling hard done by'

Andrew Mitchell: 'It's no good feeling hard done by'

In his first interview since 'plebgate', the former Chief Whip opens up just enough to concede that, in politics, you have to take the rough with the smooth
Corruption and the FCO: Blue skies, white sands, dark clouds

Corruption and the FCO: Blue skies, white sands, dark clouds

Special report: Met police call for criminal inquiry into former diplomat's Cayman Islands rule
Fallen angel: Winona Ryder on bouncing back from her decade in the wilderness

Fallen angel: Winona Ryder bounces back

She owned the 1990s... but then she disappeared. Now, Ms Ryder is back with quite the bang in her latest role, as the wife of a notorious real-life Mob hitman.
Roman Polanski shakes Cannes Film Festival

Roman Polanski shakes Cannes Film Festival

The director's new film, 'Venus in Fur', is one of the raciest on offer
Rev Richard Coles: 'I don’t have any concerns that God is cross with me for being gay and eventually the Church won’t either'

Rev Richard Coles on the Church and homosexuality

The mellifluous, erudite and witty Coles is the nation's most pop-culture-friendly priest
'Baghdad likes to live from crisis to crisis': Civil war looms in Iraq

Patrick Cockburn: Civil war looms in Iraq

The governor of Kirkuk - one of the country's most violent but successful provinces - fears the worst
Written on the body: Tattooists at pains to point out their artistic credentials

Written on the body

Tattooists at pains to point out their artistic credentials
Conquering Everest: 60 facts about the world's tallest mountain

Conquering Everest: 60 facts about the world's tallest mountain

The IoS marks the sixtieth anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay first reaching the peak of the highest mountain on Earth
A new, and irreversible, Dust Bowl looms

Rupert Cornwell: A new, and irreversible, Dust Bowl looms

The destructive power of tornadoes will be as nothing once the Great Plains' vast underground water reserve dries up
Every creature's needless death diminshes us all

Philip Hoare: Every creature's needless death diminishes us all

A 60 per cent decline in our national species should alarm us, yet few of us act. But to mind more about animals would reflect well on society
Killing with kindness: Burma's religious battleground - and the monks at the heart of it

Killing with kindness: Burma's religious battleground

Six years ago, the world cheered the monks behind Burma’s Saffron Revolution. Now, a horrific new eruption of religious slaughter is being blamed on a 'Buddhist Bin Laden'.
Let's take it outside: Bill Granger's Bank Holiday feast

Let's take it outside: Bill Granger's Bank Holiday feast

You can’t always depend on the weather – but you can avoid the pitfalls of the British barbecue by preparing an elaborate outdoor feast indoors ahead of time...
The Calvin report: Stirring Champions League final shows how far English game must advance

The Calvin report

Stirring Champions League final shows how far English game must advance
10 big questions for the British & Irish Lions to answer

10 big questions for the British & Irish Lions to answer

Warren Gatland's squad fly Down Under aiming to do justice to the expectations – and hoping the Wallabies stay in the pub
The Last Word: Golf must end the hypocrisy before its halo slips totally

The Last Word

Golf must end the hypocrisy before its halo slips totally