The UK’s top rate of personal income tax is ‘substantially above the OECD average and likely to adversely affect work incentives and entrepreneurship’, according to an OECD report. Consideration should be given to reducing the rate to close to 40%, it said.
A new Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) will tackle what the Chancellor described as a ‘spaghetti bowl of reliefs, exemptions and allowances’.
George Osborne said he held a distant dream ‘that people might actually understand the tax laws that they’re being asked to comply with’.
Shadow Treasury Minister Angela Eagle observed that clause 5 of the Finance Bill ‘completely takes away’ the Labour Government’s policy of restricting tax relief on pension contributions for those earning £150,000 or over, who are ‘the top 2% of earners in the country’.
‘BP is forecast to pay about $10bn (£6.7bn) less tax over the next four years as it meets the costs of its huge oil spill in
MPs debated corporation tax and capital gains tax measures on 12 July.
Will Morris, Chair of the CBI Tax Committee, gives his reaction to the emergency Budget
A humorous take on how the tax system works
Joseph Howard considers what constitutes 'cheating' the Revenue and how HMRC are likely to react