Partnerships to face a Treasury tax crackdown September 16, 2013 DANNY Alexander will today announce plans to close tax loopholes used by many partnerships, in a move aides said is targeted at Britain’s top accountancy firms. The Treasury secretary will also tell the Liberal Democrat conference in Glasgow that he will stop private equity businesses abusing complex tax laws to pay tax at the 20p [...]
Liberal Democrats narrowly back the 45p top rate of income tax September 16, 2013 LIBERAL Democrat members yesterday said they wanted to keep the top rate of income tax at 45p – but only by a tiny majority. Activists voted by 224 to 220 to back the government's decision to abolish the 50p rate, in a major victory for leader Nick Clegg, who had been expected to lose the [...]
Boris brother signs off Tory abuse September 16, 2013 Lib Dem ministers have been peppering their speeches to conference with attacks on the Conservatives and half-hearted jokes at the expense of their coalition colleagues – most of which have struggled to raise a laugh even among the party faithful. But the Tories knew it was coming – because Conservative MP Jo Johnson, brother of [...]
Email error turns yellows red September 16, 2013 Journalists couldn’t decide whether it was a clever ploy or an embarrassing mistake when the Lib Dem press office sent a confidential briefing note to its entire mailing list. The document, first published on City A.M.’s website, armed MPs with punchy soundbites like “the party is in a confident mood”. But it also included a [...]
Cable backs the good book September 16, 2013 After David Cameron compared business secretary Vince Cable to Jeremiah, the old testament prophet who was constantly warning of impending doom, aides were quick to fight back – until Bloomberg’s Rob Hutton pointed out that the part of the scripture that everyone forgets is that Jeremiah was right. A day later and Cable took to [...]
Small firms look to start hiring as tax cut nears September 16, 2013 MORE small companies intend to take on additional staff in the third quarter than at any time in the last three years, according to new research released today. The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) reveals that 15 per cent have increased staff numbers in this quarter, and have positive intentions for the near future. In [...]
Positive territory for US industry ahead of Fed decision on taper September 16, 2013 INDUSTRIAL production and a survey of factories announced yesterday saw some improvement in the US economy ahead of tomorrow’s decision on whether to trim the Fed’s QE programme. The New York Fed’s Empire State manufacturing index came in at 6.29, signalling slightly slower growth in September than in August. And industrial production across the US [...]
IMF approves next $113m aid loan to Cyprus September 16, 2013 CYPRUS yesterday passed its critical review by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), allowing the finance body to give the stricken Mediterranean island the next tranche of its bailout loans. The Fund completed its first review, enabling it to disburse another $113m (£71m) of the programme. Overall the IMF’s bailout plan budgets for loans totalling $1.3bn [...]
Business facing billions in bills from pension sign-up scheme September 16, 2013 FIRMS in the UK are facing several thousand pounds of set-up fees each to get up to speed with the government’s pension auto-enrolment scheme, and billions of pounds in total. According to research released today by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), auto-enrolment is set to cost businesses £15.4bn in set-up costs, with [...]
Eurozone inflation slows down as summer comes to an end September 16, 2013 INFLATION dipped in the Eurozone in August, according to official statistics released yesterday, and remains well below the target of the European Central Bank (ECB). The euro area’s consumer price index (CPI) fell from 1.6 per cent to 1.3 per cent in comparison to the same month last year, with core inflation at only 1.1 [...]