Business tax: Businesses wary of cuts
The Financial Times (14 June) reports that business leaders are urging the Chancellor George Osborne to avoid making deep cuts in infrastructure projects and to drop commitments to ringfence the budgets for health and overseas aid.
EEF the manufacturers' organisation believes that the ringfencing of departmental budgets will hinder the Government's target for reducing the deficit by an 80:20 combination of spending cuts and tax increases. EEF suggests that 'immediate action' is required in the Budget to reform the tax system in particular to modernise 'the capital allowances regime to reflect the true cost and shorter lives of modern machinery and increase the rate of VAT to 20%'. The organisation would also welcome a reduction in the main rate of corporation tax to 25% over the next five years and a reduction in the top rate of income...
