Tax must be fair

Citing Adam Smith’s four maxims for taxation is indeed a “canny move” by the finance secretary (Leader, 8 June).

It isn’t by chance but intentional that the first maxim emphasises the principle of “ability to pay”. Thus, as always in Smith, there is an important ethical element, namely that taxation must be fair.

Hence, as he says, keeping or breaking this rule gives “the equality or inequality of taxation”. Unfortunately, and to society’s detriment, economics no longer has Smith’s abiding concern with the ethics of economics.

Arguably, political economy took a wrong turn when it forsook ethics for mathematics and model building.

Ellis Thorpe

Old Chapel Walk

Inverurie, Aberdeenshire