The chancellor’s final Autumn Statement before the general election was always likely to be an unashamedly political one, and so it proved. It may have been labelled an 'Autumn Statement', but there's little doubt that this was in reality a proper Budget. In fact, as Chris Sanger observes (see below), there were more policy measures announced this week than there were in the March Budget.
There is an obvious appeal to the electorate: banks, profit diverting multinationals, non-doms and people who can afford to buy a better house than you, all fare badly.
The removal of the 'slab' system for SDLT was the big surprise - and it seems a shame to limit the reform to residential property - but of course the new higher rates for expensive properties just happen to nicely counter Labour’s plans for a mansion tax.
We’ll have to wait for the Finance Bill to understand exactly what the 25% ‘Google tax’ entails, but we do know it is predicted to raise more than a billion pounds over the course of the next parliament. If it wasn't for the forthcoming election, this might have been a puzzling move from a government which has breached the virtues of not acting unilaterally on international issues.
Generally, though, tax revenues are a cause for real concern. This is something which economics expert David Smith has previously warned about in the pages of Tax Journal, but the extent of the problem is now laid bare: as John Hawksworth notes (below), tax revenues are projected to be £25bn lower in 2018/19 than forecast back in March.
The chancellor’s final Autumn Statement before the general election was always likely to be an unashamedly political one, and so it proved. It may have been labelled an 'Autumn Statement', but there's little doubt that this was in reality a proper Budget. In fact, as Chris Sanger observes (see below), there were more policy measures announced this week than there were in the March Budget.
There is an obvious appeal to the electorate: banks, profit diverting multinationals, non-doms and people who can afford to buy a better house than you, all fare badly.
The removal of the 'slab' system for SDLT was the big surprise - and it seems a shame to limit the reform to residential property - but of course the new higher rates for expensive properties just happen to nicely counter Labour’s plans for a mansion tax.
We’ll have to wait for the Finance Bill to understand exactly what the 25% ‘Google tax’ entails, but we do know it is predicted to raise more than a billion pounds over the course of the next parliament. If it wasn't for the forthcoming election, this might have been a puzzling move from a government which has breached the virtues of not acting unilaterally on international issues.
Generally, though, tax revenues are a cause for real concern. This is something which economics expert David Smith has previously warned about in the pages of Tax Journal, but the extent of the problem is now laid bare: as John Hawksworth notes (below), tax revenues are projected to be £25bn lower in 2018/19 than forecast back in March.
