We need an open contest to decide who will run the Bank April 11, 2012 THERE is no doubt that George Osborne’s most important decision over the next few months will be who he appoints as the next governor of the Bank of England. That job, which becomes vacant next year, is by a huge distance the most powerful unelected position in the UK; its formal powers now span monetary [...]
UK tries out real-time tax scheme April 11, 2012 A PILOT for a new real-time information system was launched by HM Revenue and Customs yesterday in an effort to cut down on over- and under-payments of income tax. The scheme is designed to reduce errors in the pay as you earn (PAYE) system when workers change jobs, which HMRC hopes will save employers £300m [...]
Why Britain’s income tax system is already astonishingly progressive April 9, 2012 IF YOU want to say that something is too high or too low, you need to know its current level first. For instance, imagine a survey that suggests a majority of the public wants government to increase spending on defence. I would be immediately sceptical of such findings for two reasons. Firstly, the responder is [...]
A new tax year: Start it as you mean to go on April 9, 2012 GOOD intentions are rarely in short supply, but most people are running huge deficits in acting on them. As always, the lead-up to the end of the last financial year saw a last-minute flurry of activity, with people rushing to sort out their tax, pensions and Isas. Old habits die hard, but it would pay [...]
Advice for budding businesses April 1, 2012 ACCOUNTING ACCOUNTING is an unloved but essential discipline for entrepreneurs. Businesses that fail to keep the financial score are flying blind. Record and track your results to monitor your financial status. Measure sales, costs and working capital. Identify the key performance indicators (KPIs) that will keep your business on track, including orders, sales and gross [...]
Storage tax to backfire March 22, 2012 BIG Yellow Group’s stock plunged four per cent on the Budget’s surprise announcement that self-storage units could from October no longer be exempt from value added tax. In the name of correcting VAT anomalies and closing loopholes, Osborne outlined that self-storage will be taxed as other forms of storage and no longer be classed as [...]
Granny tax to hit 4m people March 21, 2012 MORE than four million pensioners will be hit by a “granny tax” after George Osborne said he would freeze the amount of income that is not subject to tax. The chancellor is set to raise £3.3bn from the measure over five years as part of Treasury measures to simplify the “complicated” system of age-related allowances. Osborne [...]
FACTCHECKER WITH TIM WALLACE March 21, 2012 GEORGE Osborne told the Commons the 50p top rate of income tax “raises at most a fraction of what we were told, and may raise nothing at all,” while causing “massive distortions,” justifying, he said, cutting the rate to 45p from next year. Can it be true that high tax rates raise so little? If [...]
VAT hike on chicken and sausage rolls March 21, 2012 THOSE WHO enjoy tucking into supermarket rotisserie chicken, toasted sandwiches or sausage rolls bought on the high street may find they are about to pay more dearly after the chancellor clamped down on loopholes allowing shops to avoid paying VAT on hot food. From October, supermarkets and other retailers such as Greggs will be forced [...]
Every taxpayer to be told how their money is spent March 21, 2012 Every taxpayer will receive a personalised statement breaking down how their tax is spent, under plans aimed at increasing the government’s financial transparency. From 2014 , around 20m taxpayers will receive a Personal Tax Statement from HMRC, setting out exactly how much income tax and national insurance contributions they pay and detailing where the money [...]