Market leading insight for tax experts
View online issue

Budget date uncertainty

printer Mail

The chancellor was unable to confirm the date of the Autumn Budget when he appeared before the Select Committee on Economic Affairs on 11 September (see bit.ly/2NkAHtY).

‘The situation this autumn is complicated by the fact that there are some very significant political events, including potentially one the timing of which is as yet indeterminate: the continued speculation that there may be a special European Council in November,’ the chancellor explained. ‘Clearly that makes it difficult to fix the date of another event in our own political calendar.’

In the joint memorandum of understanding between Office for Budget Responsibility, HM Treasury, the Department for Work and Pensions and HMRC, the chancellor must, ‘in the absence of exceptional circumstances’, give the OBR at least 10 weeks’ notice of the Budget date in order for it to produce the fiscal and economic forecasts.

At his appearance before the Sub-Committee, the chancellor added: ‘The ten-week convention with the OBR is a minimum, not a maximum, period of notice, and I have asked the OBR to begin planning for an autumn Budget but on the basis that we cannot give them a firm date at this stage … As soon as we are able to fix a date, I will, of course, announce it to Parliament.’

EDITOR'S PICKstar
Top