Corporation tax as a problem of MNC organisational circuits: The case for unitary taxation

The tax practices of multinational corporations have become a matter of significant public and political concern. The underlying issues are rooted in the capacity of multinational corporations (MNCs) to construct organisational circuits that shift where sales, revenue and profit are reported. This capacity in turn becomes a focus because of the way MNCs are treated as a series of separate entities, subject to the arm’s length principle. This has become a classic example of a system whose current form and consequences were not foreseen when the original principles were set out. The continued existence of that system owes more to specific interests and inertia than it does to the absence of a viable alternative. Unitary taxation based on formula apportionment clearly resolves the underlying issues and unitary taxation may well ultimately emerge as a new generalised basis for corporate taxation. However, for it to do so, the problems of the current system and the advantages of the alternative need to be more clearly understood within academia, business and on a societal basis. This paper is a contribution to such an understanding

Troubling discourses of poverty in early childhood in the UK

Poverty in early childhood is pervasive, effecting every aspect of children’s lives. Under current government policies child poverty in the UK is predicted to rise to 40% by 2022. Dominant discourses of poverty have historically focussed on an over-arching discourse of moral responsibility essentially relating to deserving and underserving poor. This paper examines how government policy continues to significantly impact on young children and families low incomes in early childhood and how stigmatised discourses about welfare, work are pervasive. It is argued that discourses of redistribution and children’s rights deserve greater recognition if poverty is to be addressed