Pre-budget Report 2008

Pre-budget Report 2008 PDF Author: Great Britain. Treasury
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780101748421
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
The 2008 Pre-Budget Report presents updated assessments and forecasts of the economy and public finances, and reports on how in the face of major global economic shocks the Government intends to support the economy, businesses and households through these uncertain times while delivering its long-term goals. Measures announced include: temporarily reducing the Value Added Tax (VAT) rate to 15 per cent from1 December 2008 to 31 December 2009; bringing forward £3 billion of capital spending from 2010-11 including introducing a green stimulus supporting low carbon growth and jobs; introducing a new additional higher rate of income tax of 45 per cent for those with incomes above £150,000 from April 2011; increasing national insurance contributions by 0.5 per cent from April 2011; increasing alcohol and tobacco duties; a two pence per litre increase in fuel duty from 1 December). Immediate action to help those individuals and businesses most affected by the economic downturn include: increases in the income tax personal allowance; bringing forward the increase in Child Benefit; increases of the Child Tax Credit and a payment of £60 to all pensioners; help through mortgage rescue and Support for Mortgage Interest schemes for eligible homeowners in difficulty and a commitment from major mortgage lenders not to initiate repossession action within at least three months of an owner-occupier going into arrears; an additional £1.3 billion to support for the unemployed to find a new job; measures to help small and medium-sized enterprises facing credit constraints; a new HMRC Business Payment Support Service to allow businesses in temporary financial difficulty to pay their HMRC tax bills on a timetable they can afford; and more generous tax relief for businesses now making losses and the modification of a number of planned tax reforms, including vehicle excise duty, air passenger duty, and the deferral of the increase in the small companies' rate of corporation tax.

Pre-budget Report 2008

Pre-budget Report 2008 PDF Author: Great Britain. Treasury
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780101748421
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
The 2008 Pre-Budget Report presents updated assessments and forecasts of the economy and public finances, and reports on how in the face of major global economic shocks the Government intends to support the economy, businesses and households through these uncertain times while delivering its long-term goals. Measures announced include: temporarily reducing the Value Added Tax (VAT) rate to 15 per cent from1 December 2008 to 31 December 2009; bringing forward £3 billion of capital spending from 2010-11 including introducing a green stimulus supporting low carbon growth and jobs; introducing a new additional higher rate of income tax of 45 per cent for those with incomes above £150,000 from April 2011; increasing national insurance contributions by 0.5 per cent from April 2011; increasing alcohol and tobacco duties; a two pence per litre increase in fuel duty from 1 December). Immediate action to help those individuals and businesses most affected by the economic downturn include: increases in the income tax personal allowance; bringing forward the increase in Child Benefit; increases of the Child Tax Credit and a payment of £60 to all pensioners; help through mortgage rescue and Support for Mortgage Interest schemes for eligible homeowners in difficulty and a commitment from major mortgage lenders not to initiate repossession action within at least three months of an owner-occupier going into arrears; an additional £1.3 billion to support for the unemployed to find a new job; measures to help small and medium-sized enterprises facing credit constraints; a new HMRC Business Payment Support Service to allow businesses in temporary financial difficulty to pay their HMRC tax bills on a timetable they can afford; and more generous tax relief for businesses now making losses and the modification of a number of planned tax reforms, including vehicle excise duty, air passenger duty, and the deferral of the increase in the small companies' rate of corporation tax.

Pre-budget Report 2008

Pre-budget Report 2008 PDF Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Treasury Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215526113
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 178

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Book Description
The Treasury Committee's report on the Pre-Budget Report 2008 (Cm. 7484, ISBN 9780101748421) considers that the balance of risks to the Treasury's forecast, for a swift recovery in economic growth for 2010 after a significant decline in output in 2009, is on the downside. The report highlights the lack of bank lending as the single most critical problem for the economy in the near term. The overall effect of the fiscal stimulus remains uncertain, the cost of the reduction in VAT is considerable and, in the view of the majority of commentators, the Treasury's analysis of its impact is an optimistic one. The report notes that the risk of a self-reinforcing deflationary cycle exists in the UK economy at present and recommends that the Treasury prepare and publish the actions it may consider taking should a period of "quantitative easing" be needed. While the need for lower interest rates to maintain economic growth is crucial at the present time, the needs of savers must not be forgotten and the Treasury should consider measures that will also support savers at this difficult time. The report notes with concern that the Pre-Budget Report contains no policy measures which will significantly advance meeting the 2010 child poverty target.

Pre-budget Report 2008

Pre-budget Report 2008 PDF Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Environmental Audit Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215529145
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 116

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Book Description
This report examines, firstly, the Treasury's response to recession. The fiscal stimulus measures intended to pull the economy out of recession represent an invaluable opportunity to transform the UK into a low carbon economy. But meeting climate change and renewable energy targets will require a step-change in environmental investment. This year's Pre-Budget Report announced a £535m package of green fiscal stimulus measures designed to tackle economic and environmental problems simultaneously. This investment is welcome, but the scale too small- most of this funding was already committed, and will be offset by reduced spending in 2010-11. Extra funding announced for the Warm Front programme will not deliver the scale and speed of change that is needed. Programmes aimed at improving the energy efficiency of existing buildings should be the number one priority for green fiscal stimulus. It is disappointing that the wider fiscal stimulus package contains hundreds of millions of pounds for road building and widening. The Treasury should publish an assessment of the net impacts of its fiscal stimulus package on the environment. The second part of the report looks at green taxation. In real terms, revenue from green taxes has gone down slightly since 1998, while revenue from all taxation has increased by around 30 per cent. On aviation taxes, the Committee criticise the Treasury's backtracking on replacing Air Passenger Duty with a 'per plane' charge, and exhorts the Government to seek reform of the Chicago Convention so as to allow taxation of international aviation fuel. On motoring taxes, it calls for re-examination of the merits and practicalities of a 'car scrappage' scheme to pay people to trade in their existing, older cars, for newer, more efficient models.

Budget 2008

Budget 2008 PDF Author: Great Britain. Treasury
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780102953336
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
The Budget sets out the Government's plans for taxation, public spending and economic growth for the coming year. The Government reports that the economy is stable and resilient, and continuing to grow, and that its strict fiscal rules are being met. Measures include: further financial support for children to move 250,000 out of poverty; an additional one-off payment for over-80s and over-60s households alongside the Winter Fuel Payment; increased support and access to finance for small firms; a £200 million package to support and bring forward by one year the GCSE targets; postponement of the planned fuel duty increase of 2 pence per litre in April 2008 until October 2008; an increase in alcohol duty rates by 6 per cent from 17 March 2008; laying the ground work for the introduction for five-year carbon budgets (the first of which will be included in Budget 2009); further steps to tackle climate change, including reforms to Vehicle Excise Duty, auctioning of 100 per cent of allowances for large electricity producers in Phase III of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, and that to eliminate single use carrier bags the Government will legislate and impose a charge if retailers do not take voluntary action; further reforms to modernise the tax system, and a number of measures to combat tax fraud and avoidance. (Supporting publications issued alongside the Budget are "The UK economy: analysis of long-term performance and strategic challenges" and "2008 long-term public finance report", HM Treasury - http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/budget/budget_08/bud_bud08_index.cfm). The National Audit Office "Audit of assumptions Budget 2008" is also available (HC 345, ISBN 9780102953367).

Pre-budget Report 2008

Pre-budget Report 2008 PDF Author: Great Britain. Parliament House of Commons. Treasury Committee
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780215529978
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 13

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Book Description
Government response to HC 27 (ISBN 9780215526113). The Pre-budget report 2008 published in November 2008 (Cm. 7484, ISBN 9780101748421)

The 2008 Budget

The 2008 Budget PDF Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Treasury Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215514554
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 174

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Book Description
This report examines the forecasts and measures contained in the 2008 Budget (HC 455, session 2007-08, ISBN 9780102953336). The Treasury's lower forecasts for economic growth in 2008 and 2009 are above the average of independent forecasters, suggesting that the Treasury may have given insufficient weight to the risks of continued financial market turbulence and that some of the UK economy's characteristics that have proven beneficial in past crises (rapidly rising residential property prices, close links with the US and an increasing reliance on the financial services industry, for example) might prove to be conduits through which the current problems in global financial markets are transmitted to the UK real economy. The further weakening of the forecasts for the public finances is noted, and it appears premature for the Treasury to state that it is "on course" to meet the golden rule in the next economic cycle, given the lack of an end date for the previous economic cycle. Measures on child poverty are welcomed, but there is a need for a clear explanation on deployment of resources to ensure that the target to halve child poverty by 2010-11 will be achieved. The abolition of the 10 pence rate of income tax will most affect those under 65 years of age, in childless households, earning under £18,500: the Committee feels this group is an unreasonable target for raising additional tax revenues. The Treasury should commission research into whether the withdrawal of the 10 pence income tax band and high marginal deduction rates are creating disincentives that could frustrate the Government's welfare to work objectives. The Committee also calls for a national Saving Gateway targeted at low-income households and more consideration of tax changes on the middle and lower income groups of non-domiciled taxpayers.

Pre-budget Report 2008

Pre-budget Report 2008 PDF Author: Great Britain. Parliament House of Commons. Environmental Audit Committee
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780215530691
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 14

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Book Description
Response to HC 202 (ISBN 97802155291545)

Audit of Assumptions for the 2008 Pre-budget Report

Audit of Assumptions for the 2008 Pre-budget Report PDF Author: Great Britain. National Audit Office
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780102954449
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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Book Description
This report by the National Audit Office, made under sections 156 and 157 of the Finance Act 1998, examines the conventions and assumptions underlying the Treasury's fiscal projections within the 2008 pre-budget report (Cm. 7484, ISBN 9780101748421). A new assumption is also reviewed: that the economic cycle that began in the first half of 1997, as defined by the Treasury, ended in the second half of 2006.

Pre-budget Report 2009

Pre-budget Report 2009 PDF Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Treasury Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215543097
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description
This report acknowledges that deciding the right time for fiscal consolidation requires making a fine judgement about the resilience of the recovery. It emphasises that a plan to restore the health of the public finances must deal with the structural deficit. While the Treasury aims to cut the deficit from 9% of GDP to 3.6% of GDP in four years, the expert witnesses who examined it all criticised the document for not providing enough information about how this will be achieved. Future Budgets and PBRs should attempt to quantify the downside risks around the structural deficit forecast. There will be uncertainty in these figures, but they are produced as part of the Spending Review process so there appears to be no argument against their publication. Similarly the Bank of England publishes forecasts showing the possible range of inflation rates and publishing information about debt interest on a similar basis would be useful. The recession appears to have had substantially less impact on the labour market than might have been feared, though concern remains about the level of youth unemployment. Repossessions have been far lower than expected however it is recommended that the Treasury proceeds cautiously over the timing of removal of Government support in this area. We do not want to see a return to the times of easy credit, but the Government needs to remain aware of the risk that lending will not support renewed private sector growth as the public sector retrenches. The purpose of the tax on bank bonuses is to change behaviour so that banks increase their capital, rather than providing large discretionary payments to employees. The next Parliament needs to examine the effectiveness of any regime introduced by the Financial Services Bill, in terms both of its success in altering bank behaviour, and of its effect on the competitiveness of the UK financial sector

Meeting the aspirations of the British people

Meeting the aspirations of the British people PDF Author: Great Britain. Treasury
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780101722728
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
The Government's objective is to build a strong economy and a fair society, in which there is opportunity and security for all. The 2007 Pre-Budget Report and Comprehensive Spending Review, 'Meeting the aspirations of the British People' (Cm 7227), presents updated assessments and forecasts of the economy and public finances, describes reforms that the Government is making and sets out the Government's priorities and spending plans for the years 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11, including: maintaining macroeconomic stability; investing in the future with total public spending rising from £589bn in 2007-08 to £678bn in 2010-11 including an additional £2bn for capital investment in public services; continuing the sustained investment in the NHS, with resources rising from £90bn in 2007-08 to £110bn by 2010-11 and with value for money savings of at least £8.2bn contributing to the funding of the conclusions of the Darzi Review 'Our NHS, our future'; further sustained increases in resources for education, science, transport, housing, child poverty, security and international poverty reduction and the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games; simplifying the tax system to make it fairer, simpler and more efficient; modernising the tax system through major reforms to inheritance tax and capital gains tax; steps to protect the environment, including reforms of the tax regime for aviation and a new Environmental Taxation Fund to support the demonstration and deployment of new energy and efficiency technologies. For related publications, see 9780102944556 (2007 Budget Statement), 9780101698429 (2006 Pre-Budget), and for the Darzi Review see (http://www.ournhs.nhs.uk/files/283411_OurNHS_v3acc.pdf)