The Great Debate UK
Key tests for the emergency budget
-Thomas Story is tax director at BDO LLP. The opinions expressed are his own. Join Reuters for a live discussion with guests as UK Chancellor George Osborne makes an emergency budget statement at 12:30 p.m. British time on Tuesday, June 22, 2010.-
Ten key tests by which Chancellor George Osborne will be judged when he delivers the emergency budget on Tuesday:
1. Do the tax measures make a significant contribution to reducing the fiscal deficit?
The Chancellor is caught on the horns of a dilemma with the promise of various tax cuts contained in the coalition agreement needing to be offset by larger tax rises in the emergency budget to help plug the gap in the government’s finances. However, this may allow some targeted tax cuts to be introduced from 2011 but only in small steps as the economy improves.
The phoney budget
Thomas Story is tax director at BDO. He will participate in a Reuters Budget live blog at noon GMT on Wednesday, March 24, 2010. Please tune in and join the discussion.-
The March 2010 Budget, to be held next Wednesday, will inevitably be highly political as it is effectively the starting gun for the general election campaign. In this context, further significant fiscal measures to tackle the 178 billion pound government deficit will almost certainly be postponed.
Tough year ahead for UK plc – but longer term future sound
Peter Hemington is a Corporate Finance Partner at BDO Stoy Hayward. The views expressed are his own.
Over the past few weeks several business surveys, including our own BDO Business Trends report, have painted a very gloomy picture of the UK economy. Short and medium term business confidence continues to plummet as the credit crunch takes its toll on unemployment figures, the housing market, the ability or desire that banks have to lend and consumer spending.
