Letter: That EU `tax plan'

Sir: According to an excellent Burson-Marsteller report, Doing Business with Schroder and Fischer, the new German government plans to reduce its basic tax rate to 19.9 per cent by 2002. Each year the Germans propose to take more low-wage earners out of paying income tax.

According to the same report the new German government is seeking to bring in a uniform corporate tax rate of 35 per cent by 2000. In other words Germany is seeking to reduce tax on income and corporate profits. (actually very few major German firms have paid any serious corporate taxes in recent years, but too many facts can spoil a good story.)

DENIS MacSHANE MP

(Rotherham, Lab)

House of Commons