Author: Daniel
Posted: 16 February 2012, 12:05:55

There are worse tasks in a daily work routine than flicking through the morning’s newspapers. It’s what I do to compile Taxation’s weekly news briefing email. (Out every Friday! Free of charge! Sign up now!)

At this time of year, in the run-up to the Budget, the duty becomes a bit of a bore, as the majority of tax stories in the national press become variations on “[insert name here] industry wants tax breaks for itself”.

We call such reports dead horses (insomuch as they never move forward no matter how hard the flogging) – and the stable got one bigger today with the announcement that the House of Lords’ communications committee has suggested the  British p ress be given financial incentives, including… sigh… tax reliefs. 

Now, not only is this counsel humdrum (although it makes a pleasant change from the near-ceaseless foot-stomping of hairdressers, who seem to not want to cough up for anything, let alone taxes), but it’s also a guidance that’s kinda counterintuitive.

I write this not only as a news-hungry member of the public, but also as a fully accredited journalist with almost 20 years’ experience: papers are on the decline, the main reason for which is the inexorable rise of digital; the internet and associated communication technology – smartphones and that – have superseded the dead-trees medium in terms of popularity and the ability to raise revenue.

It’s a shame, maybe, but it’s true. (The Leveson debacle won’t have helped the sector’s cause, either.)

Almost every other week, some media commentator will crow, ‘Print’s not dead!’ Okay, but it’s in the Fleet Street hospice. And it’ll croak soon rather than later (along with, by the way, daily television schedules).

For HMRC to squeeze the press gently, rather than wringing it like a wet rag before it disintegrates, would be akin to tax breaks for facilities dedicated to the breeding of giant pandas (those ridiculous, useless creatures; they’re not even genetically disposed to digest that bamboo they eat all day long, for goodness sake.)

More aptly, the situation mooted today by the Lords would be as if the Revenue had given an easy ride to the typewriter industry (which carked out last April) in reaction to the rise of desktop computers – and at a crisis point following revelations that senior employees of, say, Remington and Sons had been caught breaking into their neighbours’ homes to see what brand of correction fluid they preferred.

 

Taxation Team blog

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