Tax Up 51% Under Labour

Tomorrow is the start of Labour’s annual conference in Manchester. As if things werent bad enough, yet another blow to Gordon Brown’s stewardship has emerged from the TaxPayers’ alliance who have claimed that under labour (since 1997) the burden of tax has risen by 51% in real terms.

Lobby group (TPA) has issued a report that directly challenges Gordon Brown’s claim that he has been successful in running the British economy over the past decade.

Compared to other nations, the TPA said that Britain’s performance has been “poor across the board”.

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Henderson Group Shoves Off To Ireland To Enjoy Better Tax Efficiency

One of the largest financial firms in UK, the Henderson Group, is making strategic moves in their corporate structure to help cut the tax required by the UK government.

In an effort to reduce its corporate tax burden Henderson will be establishing a new company in Ireland. This will help reduce the companies tax liability to just 20 percent from 28 percent. Henderson is just one of the many companies in the UK looking for different strategies in corporate structure to avoid the burden of UK corporation tax.

The exodus of companies continues, even though the UK has reduced corporate taxes from 30 percent to 28 percent in April of this year.

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MP’s Sign Windfall Tax Petition

Over 70 British MPs have signed a petition calling on Prime Minister Gordon Brown to levy a windfall tax on energy and utility companies. As MP’s return from their summer recess it’s predicted that number of signatories will top 100. The petition is organised by the leftwing pressure group Compass.

Notably some parliamentary private secretaries (PPS) have had their names highlighted on the list, for these unpaid assistants don’t usually add their names to petitions.

They include Mark Lazarowicz, PPS to David Cairns in the Scotland Office; Derek Wyatt, PPS to Margaret Hodge, minister in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport; and John Robertson, PPS to Kim Howells, minister in the Foreign Office.

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Fat Kid’s Pay More Tax

The British Retail Consortium has appealed to the Government to extend the VAT exemption on clothing to reflect changes in the growing size of British children.

2002 was the last time a review was held over the rules governing the tax on children’s clothing and footwear. This set out to allow those up to the age of 14 to be clothed without the additional 17.5% tax.

The current allowance scheme is based upon size, not age.

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