Category Archives: Tax and spending

Keir Starmer to promise new powers for all of England’s towns and cities

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Exclusive: Labour leader to pledge biggest expansion of devolution since party was last in power

A new Labour government would give all towns and cities in England new powers and funding to boost local economies, deliver thousands of new homes and create high-quality jobs, Keir Starmer will announce.

In the biggest expansion of devolution since Labour was last in power, he will pledge that councils and combined authorities would get more control over housing and planning, skills, energy and transport of the kind currently held by London, the West Midlands and Greater Manchester.

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Rishi Sunak ‘responsible for biggest income tax rise in at least 50 years’

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Resolution Foundation analysis claims stealth move of freezing tax thresholds will raise £40bn a year

Rishi Sunak’s government is responsible for the biggest income tax rise for decades in a stealth move that will raise £40bn a year, according to new analysis.

Taxpayers in the higher bracket will be handing over £3,700 a year more in tax as a result of a six-year freeze to income tax thresholds by 2027-28, the Resolution Foundation calculated.

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Rishi Sunak claims putting reducing inflation ahead of tax cuts Thatcherite and ‘deeply Conservative’ – UK politics live

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Prime minister says ‘the best tax cut we can give is to cut inflation’ after Michael Gove says taxes should be cut before general election

The BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg is starting. As well as Rishi Sunak, Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, is also being interviewed.

Q: Do you still think we’ve had enough of experts?

Economic forecasting was invented to make astrology look respectable.

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UK outspends rest of Europe on housing asylum seekers by at least 40% a person

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Exclusive: Report by aid campaign One finds costs now take up nearly a third of the official aid budget

The UK is spending 40% a person more than any other European country on housing asylum seekers with the costs taking up nearly a third of the official aid budget, which forced a 16.4% cut in the amount of aid spent overseas in 2022.

The findings come in a report by One, the aid campaign, which argues the proportion of the aid budget being spent on housing refugees in the UK is totally out of sync with its neighbours and is making the British aid budget both unpredictable and unmanageable

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Scrapping inheritance tax would cost £15bn a year by 2032, says IFS

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Thinktank carried out analysis as calls mount among Tory MPs for the tax to be abolished

Scrapping inheritance tax would cost the government almost £15bn a year in lost revenue by 2032, according to analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies that follows calls from Tory MPs for the main tax on inherited wealth to be abolished.

The thinktank said the latest figures from HMRC showed fewer than 4% of estates paid inheritance tax (IHT) in 2020–21, but the rapid growth in wealth among older individuals meant this number was set to rise to more than 7% over the next decade.

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Liz Truss to claim her economic plan would have saved government £35bn

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Former PM set to give speech defending her time in charge and explaining spending decisions

Liz Truss will claim that Rishi Sunak’s government has spent £35bn more than she would have as prime minister, in a speech on Monday.

The short-lived prime minister will use a speech at the Institute for Government to defend and explain her time in charge, nearly a year on from the ill-fated mini-budget that helped end her premiership.

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Scottish public spending deficit falls as oil revenues hit record high

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Both sides of constitutional debate use Gers data to argue case for and against independence

Scotland’s public spending deficit has fallen from a record peak last year, as oil and gas revenues reached their highest-ever level after a global rise in oil prices.

The government expenditure and revenue Scotland (Gers) report calculated a per-person deficit – the gap between the amount raised through all tax and spending on all public services – as £1,521 in the 2022-23 financial year, down from £2,184 the previous year.

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Tax cuts would put ‘scary’ UK finances in greater danger, warns top economist

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Paul Johnson, of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, issues plea for honesty from Labour and the Conservatives about tax and spending choices ahead of election

Unveiling significant tax cuts before next year’s general election would put Britain’s “scary” public finances in further peril and risk the nightmare scenario of even higher interest rates, one of the country’s most influential economists has said.

Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, also made a plea for honesty from both main parties over the profound tax and spending choices they would face should they win power.

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Jeremy Hunt oversaw signing of San Marino low-tax treaty backed by Tory donor

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Exclusive: Maurizio Bragagni, who has given over £700k to Tories and £30k to chancellor, attended event

Jeremy Hunt oversaw the signing of a low-tax treaty with San Marino championed by a leading Tory donor, who with his companies has given more than £700,000 to the party and £30,000 to the chancellor.

Maurizio Bragagni, a prominent businessman and diplomat for San Marino, was present in No 11 when a “double taxation” treaty between the UK and San Marino was signed in May.

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Tax relief system needs overhaul to prevent abuse, say MPs

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Treasury committee report says tax system is too complicated and finds two-thirds of relief policies are uncosted

Almost £200bn of tax reliefs handed to businesses and individuals each year should come under greater government scrutiny to prevent fraud and abuse, according to an all-party group of MPs.

The Treasury committee said in a report published on Wednesday that “a systematic review” into more than 1,000 tax reliefs was needed after MPs found HM Revenue and Customs did not have the resources to monitor how tax breaks and deductions were used.

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Rural bus services hit new low after losing out on post-Covid funding

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More than a quarter of routes in English county and rural areas have been lost over 10 years

Endangered rural bus services have dwindled to a new low after losing out on funding after the pandemic, analysis for councils has shown.

More than a quarter of routes in county and rural areas of England have been lost in the past decade, with passenger numbers falling sharply.

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UK tax cuts unlikely before election, says Jeremy Hunt

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Chancellor calls on firms to tackle high prices as government remains far from pledge of halving inflation to 5%

Jeremy Hunt has said he must “double down” on high prices after admitting a package of pre-election tax cuts this autumn was looking unlikely.

The government would not make moves to “pump billions of additional demand” into the economy, the chancellor added.

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Sending asylum seekers to Rwanda will cost £169k a person, says Home Office

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‘Impact assessment’ of the illegal migration bill reignites bitter rows over the controversial scheme

The cost of sending a single person seeking asylum to Rwanda could be nearly £170,000, according to government analysis, which has immediately reignited bitter rows over the controversial scheme.

A long-awaited “impact assessment” of the illegal migration bill has conceded that ministers do not know the overall costs of implementing plans to detain and deport anyone who arrives in the UK by irregular means.

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UK delis could be forced to put up prices after new Brexit tax

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Plan to charge £43 per consignment could see some small businesses struggle to stay open

Many UK businesses which import food products from the European Union will have to pay a special “Brexit tax” that will further drive up prices, particularly in smaller shops such as delicatessens, under proposals set out by the government last week.

The planned charge of £43 per consignment, outlined in a consultation document issued by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), was described on Saturday by a leading industry figure as “the sting in the tail of a post-Brexit food inspection regime” that was already fuelling inflation.

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Amazon’s main UK division pays no corporation tax for second year in a row

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Amazon UK Services received tax credit of £7.7m for investment in infrastructure under Rishi Sunak’s super-deduction scheme

Amazon’s main UK division has paid no corporation tax for the second year in a row after benefiting from tax credits on a chunk of its £1.6bn of investment in infrastructure, including robotic equipment at its warehouses.

Amazon UK Services, which employs more than half of the group’s UK workers, received a tax credit of £7.7m in the year to the end of December, according to accounts filed at Companies House, advance details of which were shared by Amazon with the Guardian.

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Treasury analysing whether removal of tampon tax has lowered prices

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Cost of period products has risen and campaigners say saving is not being passed on by retailers

The Treasury is analysing whether the removal of the “tampon tax” – trumpeted last week by Rishi Sunak as one of the benefits of Brexit – has helped lower prices at all, amid concerns the saving is not being passed on by retailers to women.

Responding to a written question from the Labour MP Ruth Cadbury, the government said a tax reduction was able to “contribute to the conditions for price reductions” and it was “looking into whether this important zero-rating is being passed on by retailers to women as intended”.

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Rishi Sunak: Britain has moved on from judging people for being rich

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PM says Labour criticism of family tax arrangements doesn’t bother him, as rich list shows he and his wife have lost £200m

Rishi Sunak has said he is “not bothered” by Labour’s criticism of his wealthy family’s tax arrangements and thinks the UK has “moved beyond” judging people on their money, as a new estimate said the UK prime minister’s fortune had fallen to around £500m.

Sunak, who is the wealthiest British prime minister ever on account of his wife’s shareholdings, said he did not pay attention to Labour’s personal attacks on his finances.

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One in five workers will be higher-rate taxpayers by 2027 – IFS

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Jeremy Hunt’s freeze on allowances and thresholds will put a quarter of teachers and one-eighth of nurses in 40% income tax bracket

One in four teachers and one in eight nurses will be higher-rate taxpayers by 2027 as a result of the government’s record freeze on income tax allowances and thresholds, according to a leading thinktank.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies said better-paid public sector workers will be among the almost 8 million people – one in five of all taxpayers – who will pay income tax at 40% or above as result of the Treasury’s attempt to reduce the UK’s budget deficit.

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Wealth tax of 0.5% could cover UK’s share of loss and damage fund, says charity

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International fund set up at Cop27 is intended to provide compensation to countries worst hit by climate breakdown

A tax on wealthy Britons of just 0.5% could more than meet the UK’s entire “fair share” contribution to the international loss and damage fund established to support countries worst hit by global climate breakdown, a charity has suggested.

Taxing 5p of every £10 of individuals’ wealth over £1m would raise £15bn a year by 2030, well in excess of an estimated $15bn (£12bn) UK contribution to the new fund, according to an analysis by the anti-poverty campaigners Christian Aid.

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‘They can survive just fine’: Bernie Sanders says income over $1bn should be taxed at 100%

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The independent Vermont senator argued against unfettered capitalism in an interview with journalist Chris Wallace

The US government should confiscate 100% of any money that Americans make above $999m, the leftwing independent senator Bernie Sanders said late last week.

Sanders expressed that belief in an exchange on Friday evening with the host of Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace? on HBO Max.

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