UK Budget Summarized

03/22/12 09:57AM EDT

Below we provide a summary of the UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne 2012 Budget Speech on March, 21, 2012. 

The hot-button topic of tax relief for the rich was answered: Osborne lowered the top income tax rate to 45% from 50% for those earning more than 150,000 pounds, to appease his Conservative party. However these earners can claim only 25 percent of their income or 50,000 pounds, whichever is the greater, so together with the increase in stamp duty, they’ll lose an average of 1,300 pounds a year, according to initial projections.

But he also made concessions to the Liberals by clawing back lost revenue with higher taxes on homes bought for 2 million pounds ($3.2 million) or more, a squeeze on tax relief for pensioners and a clampdown on tax evasion by the rich.

SUMMARY: 

  • This Budget:
    • supports working families and helps those looking for work
    • reaffirms our unwavering commitment to deal with Britain’s record debts
    • with a tax system that is more competitive for business than any other major economy in the world
  • Forecast:
    •  OBR are sharply revising down their forecast for euro area growth this year by 0.8% to - 0.3%
    • OBR forecast for world economic growth is also revised down over the next two years – by 0.2% and 0.3% respectively
    • OBR’s overall assessment of the outlook and risks for the British economy is “broadly unchanged” since last Nov
    • OBR expect the British economy “to avoid a technical recession with positive growth in the first quarter” of 2012
    • say that the British economy has “carried a little more momentum into the new year than previously anticipated”
    • OBR is slightly revising up in their growth forecast for the UK this year to 0.8%
    • forecast 2% next year; 2.7% in 2014; and 3% in both 2015 and 2016
    • forecast unemployment rate is the same as it was last Nov
      • expect it to peak this year at 8.7% before falling each year to 6.3% by the end of the forecast period
    • revised down estimate of the claimant count, to be around 100,000 lower in each of the next four years than they previously forecast – peaking at 1.67M this yr rather than the 1.8M
    • forecast one million more jobs in the economy over 5 yrs
    • Inflation is expected to fall throughout the period, from 2.8% this year to 1.9% next year, and then 2% by the end of the forecast period
    • deficit is falling and is forecast to reach 7.6% next year
    • borrowing is set to come in at £126B, £1B lower than prior forecast
      • will then fall to £98B in 2013-14…reaching £21B by 2016-17
  • Spending:
    • reinforce today our commitment to fiscal responsibility, not just this year – but in the years ahead
    • transfer of the £28B of assets from the Royal Mail pension fund to the Exchequer will free it from its crippling pension debts, ensure the pensions of hard-working staff are paid and help to bring in new private sector investment
      • use it to pay off debt
    • maintain control of Welfare spending
      • even with Welfare Reform Act (passed two weeks ago) the welfare budget is set to rise to consume one third of all public spending
    • will be pushing a White Paper on social care
    • future govt spending is expected to be lower in Afghanistan
  • Low Interest Rates/GILTS:
    • commitment to reduce the deficit is keeping interest rates low
    • Debt Management Office will consult on the case for issuing gilts with maturities longer than 50 years, and the case for a “perpetual” gilt with no fixed redemption date
    • rebuild Britain’s reserves
      • gold holdings have risen in value to £11B
    •  historic low mortgage rates
    • New Buy Scheme, introduced last week
      • help those who cannot afford the larger deposits
    • reinvigorated Right to Buy
  • Credit Easing:
    • passing on our low interest rates to small businesses, through the National Loan Guarantee Scheme
      • £20B of guarantees in total will be available
    • allocated £1B to invest in funds that lend directly to the mid-cap businesses
      • response has exceeded our expectations
      • 24 funds have submitted proposals.
      • decided to increase the size of the Finance Partnership by 20% and also expanding the Enterprise Finance Guarantee
  • Growth: 
    • Exports 
      • want to double our nation’s exports to one trillion pounds this decade
        • expanding UK Export Finance and setting out new plans to help smaller firms in new markets
    • Investment
      • want investment from British pension funds in British infrastructure
      • set out in a National Infrastructure Plan the projects we are going to prioritize in next 10 yrs
      • transportation investments (airports, railroads)
        • will support £150M of Tax Increment Financing to help local authorities promote development
        • will provide an extra £270m to the Growing Places fund
        • Royal Docks Enterprise Zone projects in London
    • Energy
      • launched the Green Investment Bank; open for business next month
      •  introduced a Carbon Price Floor into our tax system to encourage investment
      • environmentally sustainable has to be fiscally sustainable too
      • gas will be the largest single source of our electricity in the coming years
      • introducing a major package of tax changes to extract oil and gas from reserves in North Sea
      • introducing new allowances including a £3 billion new field allowance for large and deep fields to open up West of Shetland
    • Aerospace/Science/Creative Hub
      • creating the Francis Crick Institute at St Pancras and cutting taxes on patents to make this one of the most attractive places in the world to invent new medicines
      • establish a UK centre for aerodynamics
      • introduce schemes to boost the video games, animation and high-end TV production industries
    • Best Place to Start a Business
      • replacing 1000 pages of guidance with just 50 pages
      • introducing a presumption in favor of sustainable development
    • Education/Flexible Workforce
      • offering a record number of apprenticeships and our Youth Contract comes into force next month
      • exploring the idea of enterprise loans
      • exploring a way to make public sector pay more responsive to local pay rates
    • Tax Reform
      • need to give Britain a modern tax system fit for the modern world
    • Tax Transparency
      • tax small firms on the basis of the cash that passes through their businesses
      • pressing forward with ambition to integrate the operation of income tax and national insurance
      • simplifying tax system for pensioners
      • simplify the Basic State Pension and its interaction with the second state pension
    • Business Tax
      • cut the tax rate on small companies to 20%
      • increased the generosity of the R&D tax credit for smaller firms
      •  more than doubling the Enterprise Management Incentive Scheme grant limit to £250,000
      • in April corporate tax is due to fall to 24% (22% by 2014)
      • increasing the rate of the bank levy to 0.105 per cent from next Jan
    • Duties
      • no further changes to make to the duty rates
      • duty on all tobacco products will rise by 5 percent above inflation
      • introduce a new Machine Games Duty – with a standard rate of 20% and a lower rate for low stakes and prize machines of 5% of net takings
      • in April will also introduce double taxation relief for remote gambling
      • fuel: above inflation rises will only return if the oil price falls below £45 on a sustained basis, currently equivalent to around $75 dollars
      • increasing Vehicle Excise Duty by inflation only
    • Personal Tax/Tax Avoidance
      • increased both the resources and the number of staff working on evasion and avoidance at HMRC
      • anti-avoidance measures in this year’s Finance Bill will increase tax revenue over the next five years by around £1B – and protect a further £10B that
      •  increasing the Stamp Duty Land Tax charge applied to residential properties over £2M bought into a corporate envelope, charge will 15%
      •  consult on the introduction of a large annual charge on those £2M residential properties which are already contained in corporate envelopes
      •  introducing capital gains tax on residential property held in overseas envelopes
      •  announcing legislation today to close down the sub-sales relief rules
      • introduce a new Stamp Duty Land Tax rate of 7% properties worth more than £2M
      • capping reliefs: anyone seeking to claim more than £50,000 of these reliefs in any one year will have a cap set at 25 per cent of their income
      • top rate of tax will be 45p
    • Child Benefit
      • Child Benefit will only be withdrawn when someone in the household has an income of more than £50,000
    • Personal Allowance
      • Government has set itself the goal of raising the personal tax free allowance to £10,000 – and promised real increases every year to reach that
      • announced the largest ever increase in the personal allowance
      • from next April that amount will increase by £1,100
      • people will be able to earn up to £9205 before they have to pay any tax
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