Tax expert urges the government to take a year off from the Budget speech
Chancellor Gordon Brown should steer clear of making a Budget day announcement this year and stick to resolving the raft of changes already due to be made to the tax system.
Instead of the traditional announcement, tax experts have urged the government to give the UK a year off from its programme of reform to concentrate on working out the detail and allow the public to catch up.
PricewaterhouseCoopers tax partner John Whiting said: ‘Businesses have a lot to deal with from Gordon Brown’s previous Budget speeches. The whole corporate tax self assessment regime, with its quarterly payments system, was a pretty major change for a start.’
Among the measures due to become effective from April this year are: limits to employee national insurance contributions; the Working Families Tax Credit; the basic rate of tax and the Married Couple’s Allowance.