156 items found
“Action should be taken now to end the big donor culture before another scandal does further damage” – the warning four months ago from the Committee on Standards in Public Life.
Gary Gibbon
A level of taxation that was once meant for a relatively small minority of the wealthiest members of the working population could be moving towards a state where a huge chunk of the population might find themselves in its grasp in the course of a working lifetime.
“It’s such a huge shortfall that both sides have only just stopped short of accusing each other of cooking the books.”
It was a calculated political gamble. And there’s a good chance it will work – it all depends on whether Britain’s middle class voters howl in outrage at unfairness or smile in anticipation that they’ll be winners tomorrow. George Osborne will have known perfectly well that he would face fierce political attack from Labour today and he’s done it anyway, because this was his only chance.
• Top rate of tax cut to 45p from April next year • Child benefit cut-off point rises to £50K • Are personal allowances changes a ‘granny tax’? Read Gary Gibbon’s blog: 50p tax – hero to zero? 13.47: Ed Miliband compares the government to Downton Abbey, a story of the “out of touch rich”.…
Matt Frei
Matt Frei blogs on the complicated, but usually less costly tax system in the US.
In the weeks before the budget, the debate focused on one issue. If the government cut the 50p tax rate, as they had threatened, would the budget end up being dismissed as a giveaway for the rich?
Chancellor George Osborne cuts the 50p rate of tax to 45p from April 2013 and announces changes to his plans to withdraw child benefit from all 40p taxpayers.
Personal tax statements indicating how money will be spent and the scrapping of the 50p tax rate are expected as George Osborne promises Wednesday’s budget will be “for working people”.
Taxpayers are to to be given a personal statement telling them how much money is deducted from their earnings and what this is spent on, but they will not learn what they are paying in indirect taxes.
Gary Gibbon
After a few days of watching the reaction to the reduction of the 50p rate, George Osborne may be having second thoughts about its complete abolition, writes Gary Gibbon.
The Chancellor says this week’s budget will help people on low and middle incomes, and promises an “aggressive” policy on the super-rich who dodge property taxes.
George Osborne will announce plans to scrap national salaries for public sector workers and pay them according to their region instead – effectively meaning a pay cut of potentially for many of them.
The price of parking in a hospital car park has increased at nearly a third of England’s NHS trusts, new figures reveal, with critics telling Channel 4 News the costs are “exorbitant” and “unfair”.
A scheme designed to help homebuyers climb onto the property ladder is being launched in England.