Budget 2015: George Osborne has discovered his mojo March 18, 2015 George Osborne has long been considered a cunning political strategist – in some circles, at least. Personally, for a long time, I found that argument difficult to accept. His first few Budgets hardly showed signs of high-level Westminster acumen. The debut of 2010 was inevitably tough, confirming an unpopular hike in VAT. The next prompted [...]
Budget 2015: Take-home pay set to increase for UK workers March 18, 2015 Britain's workers will take home more of their income from April onwards, when the personal allowance goes up to £10,600. The amount that can be earned before tax is applied will increase again, to £10,800, in 2016, and then go up to £11,000 in 2017. For those paying the higher rate of tax, at [...]
Budget 2015: Google Tax gets green light as Treasury aims to reap £3.1bn in new avoidance clampdown March 18, 2015 The government pledged another tax clampdown yesterday, with the implementation of a so-called “Google tax” taking centre stage. The Treasury expects to raise £3.1bn over the next five years through the various measures announced. There has been ongoing concern in many quarters over what is perceived to be an unfair diversion of taxes by multinationals [...]
Budget 2015: Government to create its own property management company March 18, 2015 The government aims to copy the commercial sector by creating a property management body to oversee its estate and help meet its target of selling £5bn of land and property by 2020. Budget documents released alongside the chancellor’s speech said the government will take a more “commercially driven approach” in managing its estate. As part [...]
What does the chancellor’s Budget mean for you? From the single parent to the startup founder March 18, 2015 THE SINGLE PARENT Catherine Gannon, 51Managing partner at law firm Gannons Gannons Commercial Law continues to do well, with profits and earnings up on last year. Catherine is commercially savvy and has restructured the business from an LLP to a limited company, illustrating that she is a smart operator in a segmented legal market. [...]
Budget 2015: George Osborne plays to the crowd with a populist plan March 18, 2015 Despite the chancellor promising not to pull a rabbit from the hat, there were in fact plenty of Budget bunnies to be seen this year. With the UK now growing ahead of its major international competitors and an General Election coming up so soon, it’s clear that George Osborne felt confident enough to splash out [...]
Small beer Budget: George Osborne deserves credit for holding back on the bribery March 18, 2015 We should “choose the future” George Osborne insisted yesterday, in what may yet turn out to be his final Budget. But in truth, he spent much of his time focusing on the recent past. Employment has been buoyant and now stands at a record high. Those who predicted that spending constraint would lead to an [...]
Budget 2015: George Osborne’s plans depend on strong growth – let’s hope it actually materialises March 18, 2015 George Osborne used the opportunity of the last Budget before the election to set out his manifesto. The Budget was based on “growth and investment”, he claimed, and he promised an end to austerity towards the end of the next Parliament, defined entirely as a promise to start expanding government spending again by 2019. The [...]
Why the public finances may improve even faster than the Budget forecasts March 18, 2015 The chancellor delivered an astute Budget yesterday. Some politically safe revenue raising measures (a raid on the banks, a further crackdown on tax avoidance and evasion, and a reduction in the lifetime allowance for pensions) raised enough money to pay for some politically popular giveaways: an increase in personal income tax allowances, a new tax [...]
Was George Osborne’s last Budget before the General Election a winner for British savers? March 18, 2015 Iain McCluskey, tax director at PwC, says Yes This was a Budget for those who choose to, in George speak, fix their roof. With returns on savings sitting at miserable lows for most people, the chancellor had to innovate to try and encourage the country to save. He did this by using the Budget to [...]