It's Budget day!
At 12:30pm today chancellor Gordon Brown will deliver his seventh Budget to the House of Commons, against a backdrop of military conflict in Iraq, poor economic prospects and the need to service a growing national deficit.
Link: Budget 2003 special report
Our team of reporters will begin AccountancyAge.com’s Budget 2003 coverage as soon as the chancellor begins to speak and you can follow it by refreshing the homepage or by going to www.accountancyage.com/Budget2003.
Experts expect the chancellor to announce:
- Economic growth at 2% in 2003 and 2.4% forecast in 2004
- Government borrowing to climb to £27bn in 2003/2004
- Extensions to the R&D tax credits scheme
- Increases to Landfill tax
- Stamp duty on commercial properties to rise
- Duties on cigarettes, alcohol and fuel to rise
- No changes to VAT, inheritance tax and stamp duty on houses.