Labour's plans to force taxpayers to submit digital information about their earnings to the government every 12 weeks will hit lower earners the hardest, even pushing the poorest people out of work & onto benefits, experts have warned.
We should resist this scheme
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"It’s hard to imagine how so many single parents are going to find the time to continue running a business, juggling childcare but then also learn how to bookkeep & file quarterly updates without it putting a huge amount of pressure on top,” said Tom Bickle of JP Blackmoor Ltd.
Robyn Milstead of LKA Chartered Accountants said “These things are not just a source of anxiety, they're impossible for some. I really worry about tradespeople where English isn’t their first language. For single parents who are self-employed, the first deadline for submission is 7 August — straight in the school holidays.”
According to accountants many low earners are now planning to retire early or give up work to avoid the extra hassle and cost of completing a quarterly tax return.
This bureacratic idiocy is meant to make HMRC's life easier. Spineless politicians have just gone along with it.
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A Bloomberg analysis of 5 million company filings shows a big spike in departing business leaders over recent months, with more than 4,400 disclosing an overseas move over the last year.
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April exits were up 75% from 12 months earlier and the highest in 4 years.
Many departing are non-doms and if 25% of those leave then the Treasury starts losing serious money. “I’d be stunned if we didn’t get to 25%” said Catrin Harrison of law firm Charles Russell Speechlys.
Bloomberg spoke to over a dozen lawyers and other advisers to the ultra-rich who said anywhere from 15% to 65% of their non-dom clients are already out or are making plans to depart the UK.
Do you trust the Government to decide where your pension funds should be invested?
The Treasury has just said “The government will take a reserve power in the Pension Schemes Bill to set binding asset allocation targets.”
It's a shocking expansion of state power
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If the Government wants to get more pension money invested in British shares it should reverse Gordon Brown's tax grab & restore the pension dividend tax credit. And it should scrap stamp duty on shares.
But then it would have less cash to give to the public sector unions.
Robert Shrimsley says in the FT: "Like many of you, I suspect, I’ve come to the view that Rachel Reeves should oversee more of my financial decisions.
Who wants to see their retirement pot frittered away on cowboy outfits like Nasdaq indices or Nvidia when we could be supporting great British entrepreneurs like Michelle Mone?"
Angela Rayner's tax hike proposals would “seriously risk wrecking savers’ retirement plans” according to Andrew Tully of financial advisers Nucleus.
Punishing savers in order to reward public sector unions is not a morally justifiable policy
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“Savers need confidence that the goalposts won’t constantly shift. Rather than constantly tweaking rules we need cross party consensus on issues like this to deliver the stability required,” Tully said.
“Removing the dividend allowance may drive behavioural changes, including moving into assets that don’t produce a dividend or ensuring investments are appropriately held in wrappers," said Claire Trott, head of advice at St James’s Place.
This week Britain will be hit by a range of horrifying tax increases which will inflict major damage to the finances of British citizens, to businesses & to the economy.
We detail 12 scheduled tax hikes below
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Tax hikes are programmed for April 1 and April 6.
The greatest economic damage will be caused by hikes to Employer NI contributions. The rate will go up by 1.2ppts to 15% & the threshold cut to £5k, dragging many more low-paid & part-time workers into its scope.
The prospect of the hikes destroyed business confidence and has already led to major reductions in hiring & investment, lower pay & some lay-offs.
Now that the tax hikes are actually occurring, the pressure to reduce staff costs and numbers will be much greater.
The OBR budget watchdog downgraded its forecast for capital gains tax revenue for the next 5 years, reducing the projected tax take by £23b
No surprise there, as hikes in CGT invariably lead to reduced revenues. Labour's ideology driven CGT hikes are having the same effect
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Under reforms introduced by Tony Blair’s Government, from the year 2002-03 business assets attracted a reduced rate of 10% CGT if held for more than 2 years. CGT revenues increased sharply as a consequence, doubling in 3 years.
Conversely after the Tories in 1988 increased CGT rates by ten points from 30% to 40%, revenues fell dramatically, more than halving from £2,175m in 1987-88 to £976m in 1990-91 & further still to £606m in 1992-93.