Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category
Sunday, October 26th, 2008
The devastating 0.5% decline in Britain’s national output in the three months ending in September was far worse than anyone had forecast. These shocking figures indicate that we are already in recession, that the downturn is going to be deep and prolonged and that many businesses will close down and that hundreds of thousands of jobs will be lost. Just to add to the pain caused by the spectacular plunge in the pound, which began when Bank of England Governor Mervyn King warned of recession early this week, has gathered momentum with sterling falling to a six-year low in latest trading.
Forecasters now expect the economy to shrink in size by at least 1% in the next year and by a further 0.5% in 2010. This would mean we must prepare for the worst couple of years in a generation.
Tags: Bank of England, Mervyn King, pound, recession, sterling
Posted in Credit crisis, Credit crunch, Government, Politics, inflation | No Comments »
Thursday, October 9th, 2008
The Chancellor yesterday morning announce his £500bn banks bailout plan which will see some of the banks part-nationalised. The plan consists of the following:
- At least £200bn for short-term lending to banks to replace funds they normally borrow through the inter-bank market.
- £25bn recapitalisation facility for Abbey, Barclays, HBOS, HSBC, Lloyds TSB, Nationwide, Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered to boost their balance sheet. However, Abbey, HSBC and Standard Chartered have already declined the offer.
- £25bn top-up fund if the first capitalisation proves inadequate.
- £250bn government guarantee of bank bond issues - again to help shore up the banks’ strained balance sheets.
Click here for more information.
Tags: Abbey, bailout plan, Barclays, Government bailout, HBOS, HSBC, Lloyds TSB, Nationwide, part-nationalisation, RBS, Royal Bank of Scotland, Standard Chartered, £500 billion
Posted in Abbey, Banking, Credit crisis, Credit crunch, Finance, Government, HSBC, Halifax, Lloyds TSB, Nationwide, Politics | No Comments »
Sunday, August 10th, 2008
Dealers are refusing to take ‘worthless’ gas-guzzling 4×4s in part exchange amid plummeting values for second-hand cars. They say some are worth more as scrap as demand for steel soars. A three-year-old family car worth £5,000 will drop by £600. That means it is losing around £5 every day - leaving many owners spending more for it in repayments than it is actually worth.
Experts at price guide Parkers say the slump is the result of the Government’s controversial proposals to hit millions of drivers with backdated car tax increases of up to £245, which they say have ’skewed’ the market, and the soaring price of fuel. The worst losers are the biggest 4×4s.
Andrew Harrison-Smith, owner of Peterborough-based independent Land Rover specialist Nene Overland, said: ‘Values for big petrol-engined 4×4s are about £3,000 or perhaps even £4,000 lower than for the diesels.’
Tags: 4x4s, car tax, gas-guzzlers, government proposals, Parkers
Posted in Consumer, Government, Politics, Taxation | No Comments »
Monday, July 14th, 2008
Councils are to be banned from selling home addresses off the electoral register to companies who bombard us with junk mail. The move will make it harder for firms to track people down when they move house - and could limit the amount of mail sent out. A long-awaited report commissioned by Gordon Brown has said that the ‘edited’ electoral roll which is sold by local authorities in electronic form should be scrapped. This roll contains the names of anyone who fails to opt out when filling in their electoral registration card each year - currently around 60% of householders or 15 million. The report also said that the opt-out directions were often written in ‘confusing’ language, and householders did not realise what they were agreeing to. Everybody has to be on the full electoral register, but this cannot be bought or sold, and is available in paper form only.
Tags: commissioned report, councils, electoral, electoral registration, electoral roll, Gordon Brown, local authorities
Posted in Consumer, Local authority, Politics | No Comments »
Sunday, July 13th, 2008
Boris Johnson has axed plans to charge gas-guzzlers £25 to drive in the congestion charge zone. This means there will be no increase in charge for drivers of Band G vehicles from October 2008. The B and A and B discount, which would have resulted in thousands of cars driving into the zone for free and adding to congestion, has also been removed. The decision by the Mayor means that the discount for alternative fuel vehicles will remain in place and the existing congestion charge scheme will not be affected.
Ending the charge on the capital’s most polluting vehicles at this stage means that Transport for London will save around £10m that would have gone on implementing the scheme. The move also means Porsche is entitled to have legal costs, estimated at £400,000, paid by TfL after it launched a challenge to the former mayor’s plans. But the car-maker has offered to donate the money it receives to Skidz, a charity that provides young people, particularly those with few advantages, with mechanical skills and training that could lead to future employment.
Tags: Boris Johnson, C-charge, congestion charge, congestion charge scheme, gas-guzzlers, London Mayor, porsche, Skidz, TfL, Transport for London
Posted in Finance, London, Politics, Taxation | No Comments »
Friday, July 11th, 2008
Almost half of all car owners will be up to £245 worse off under plans for massive increases in road tax, the Treasury admitted yesterday. And fewer than one in five will benefit from the controversial move, which was sold as a way to cut greenhouse gas emissions. More than 1m drivers of cars registered between 2001 and 2006 will see road tax jump from £210 to either £430 or £455 depending on emissions, while others face hikes of between £10 and £155. Only 18% of motorists will see the price of a tax disc fall, 39% will pay the same and 43% to pay more.
The Chancellor Alistair Darling, has given strong signals that he will ‘fix’ the problem this autumn, probably by phasing in a retrospective element of the change which applies to vehicles registered between 2001 and 2006. The new regime starts to kick in next year but the biggest changes will hit in 2010 - weeks before the likely date of the next General Election.
Tags: alistair darling, car tax, car tax changes, Chancellor, road tax, road tax band, Treasury
Posted in Finance, Government, Politics, Taxation | No Comments »
Thursday, March 13th, 2008
Hidden away in the budget are new powers which mean taxpayers face massive increases in how much they can be fined simply for failing to understand their tax returns. The new penalty rules mean people who fill in their own tax forms face what is effectively a fine of up to 30% of any amount they understate which is then spotted by the taxman on grounds that they ‘failed to take reasonable care’. So for example, if they understate their tax by £1000 they face a payment of £1300. Until now penalties were rarely above 10%. Deliberate understatement of tax would now attracts a 70% fine. Unfortunately, yesterday’s press releases by Revenue & Customs ran to a record 270 pages, most of which are of interest only to accountants.
Tags: Chancellors budget, HMRC, NI, stealth tax, tax returns
Posted in Finance, Government, HM Revenue & Customs, HMRC, Personal Finance, Politics, Taxation | No Comments »
Thursday, March 13th, 2008
A new 13 road tax band will replace the existing A to G categories from 2009/10. The new top band M - for cars emitting more than 255g of carbon dioxide a kilometre - faces a £455 annual charge from 2010-11 and £950 in the first year only. This would affect the so-called Chelsea Tractors such as Land Rover, Toyota Land Cruisers and high-performance sports cars such as Porsches which are blamed for high emissions of the greenhouse gas linked to global warming. The government claims that the new band M cars are charged more in the first year to reflect the environmental cost. Some low emission cars will have their tax reduced, some for free and others with inflation busting increase. A reduction in the capital allowances on company cars on the most polluting fleet cars was also announced, aimed at encouraging employers to offer staff more green-friendly cars. Compare new tax bands with your current tax band to see how much it will cost you from April 2009.
Tags: chelsea tractors, land rover, porsches, road tax, road tax band, toyota
Posted in Consumer, Government, Personal Finance, Politics, Taxation | No Comments »
Thursday, March 13th, 2008
While it was buried in yesterday’s Budget details, the earnings ceiling for NI has been raised by £100 to £770 a week. Analysts say this means workers earning around £40,000 will pay £520 extra a year and will be among the big losers from the Budget. The change to the NI cap will be worth almost £2bn a year in revenues to the Treasury. Critics say the rise in NI bills, combined with the lack of concessions on other taxes that fall hardest on the capital - such as residential-property stamp duty, higher council tax bills, road tax, increased duty on alcohol etc - meant Londoners would be providing an even higher proportion of the national tax from April. As there are more people in London earning over £40,000 a year, they would be hit the hardest by this hidden tax.
Tags: Chancellors budget, NI, stealth tax, tax increases, Treasury
Posted in Finance, Government, HM Revenue & Customs, HMRC, London, Politics, Taxation | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
Tax authorities are stepping up their efforts to uncover any buy-to-let investors that have failed to declare their rental income. Letters have been sent to landlords this week from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) requesting for clarification on their rental income. Landlords will have nowhere to hide as HM Revenue & Customs can search the Land Registry, stamp duty records and lettings website to find rented properties. Amateur buy-to-let investors are falling foul of the tax man because they need to declare their rental income even when a buy-to-let property has made a loss.
Tags: amateur, Buy-to-let, HMRC, Landlord, landlords, tax authorities, Taxation
Posted in Buy-to-let, Finance, Government, HM Revenue & Customs, HMRC, Landlord, Politics, Taxation | No Comments »
