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.
A budget of woes? Where has our imagination gone?
-Ruth Porter is communications manager at the Institute of Economic Affairs. The opinions expressed are her own. Join Reuters for a live discussion with guests as Chancellor George Osborne makes an emergency budget statement at 12:30 p.m. British time on Tuesday, June 22, 2010.-
George Osborne has the chance to do something really radical on Tuesday in his budget statement.
Nothing is certain but death and taxes
-Rachel Mason is public relations manager at Fair Investment Company. The opinions expressed are her own.-
If there is one thing in this life you can be sure about it is that you are going to be taxed a lot. You can’t escape it.
You are taxed on your income, then you are taxed on the money from your income that you have already been taxed on when it becomes savings, then you are taxed on your pension, which is made up of cash that you have already been taxed on, and then there’s road tax, car tax, council tax, VAT, stamp duty….the list goes on.
Why not scrap the Child Trust Fund?
-Rachel Mason is public relations manager at Fair Investment. The opinions expressed are her own.-
The Child Trust Fund is set to become one of the victims of the new UK Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition’s emergency budget.
New UK coalition deserves 7 out of 10
– Hugo Dixon is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own –
The new UK coalition deserves 7 out of 10. The pact between the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties, led by David Cameron as the new prime minister, seems determined to address the country’s most important problem — the deficit. This is vital given that the euro zone debt crisis could still prove contagious. It should also be positive for sterling.
Mood of cautious optimism in owner-managed business sector
-David Rankin is managing director of business advisory, tax and assurance at Vantis. The opinions expressed are his own.-
There is no doubt that the economy is one of the most contentious issues in the run up to the election. While politicians argue over who would be able to handle the economy in the best manner going forward, we thought it would be far more telling to ask smaller businesses, those at the hardest end of the coal-face, just what they thought would happen to the economy.
Crisis, what crisis?
– The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own. –
Crisis, what crisis? That could be motto for the election manifestos published by Britain’s main political parties this week. Neither Labour nor the Conservatives addressed the country’s fiscal crisis head-on.
The benefits of early ISA investment
- Rachel Mason is public relations manager at independent financial service providers Fair Investment Company. The opinions expressed are her own. -
The financial media has been packed full of ISA news over the past few months. Most of the advice has been ‘invest in your ISA before it’s too late’. And now it is too late. The media has found something else to write about because the tax year is over, and if you missed it, tough luck.
The UK should not waste its fiscal crisis
– The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own –
The UK should not waste its fiscal crisis. As Britain embarks on its election campaign, this is a perfect opportunity to engage in radical tax and spending reforms designed not just to restore the country’s fiscal balance but to boost its long-term productivity and competitiveness.
Tories panic with tax cut pledge
— Neil Collins is a Reuters columnist. The views expressed are his own –
National Insurance contributions make an unlikely battleground for the British election. They lack the sexiness of income tax cuts. But NI is a bad tax and the Tories are right to pledge to overturn Labour’s plan to raise it.
Unfortunately, their timing smacks of desperation as their poll lead melts away. More to the point, it flies in the face of their commitment to cut Britain’s vast budget deficit.
