Today is Budget day. I distinctly remember getting home from school to find my father, who as a postman was always at home when we got in, watching the budget on the television. There was, and still is, a spark of excitement for me as somebody interested in politics: It’s probably the biggest political event in the calendar, perhaps after the Queen’s speech. This probably being Gordon Brown’s last budget, and ahead of the spending review, it’s expected to be a significant one.
So now that the budget happens earlier in the parliamentary schedule (Although mornings seem to be unpopular with MP’s for conducting business), I decided to watch the budget live for the first time in years, and have a TV window playing in the corner of my computer screen, and a steaming cup of freshly brewed coffee.
One of the interesting points just raised in the BBC’s coverage is that many people feel that budgets don’t really seem to affect them. For Frances and myself, a professional couple with no children, we’re very unlikely to find anything much - directly - in it for us, unless a cut in income tax occurs - which is very unlikely. The days are gone too of divisive budgets, even where ministers felt compelled to resign over it’s contents. Whilst that’s perhaps for the better, it could perhaps benefit from it’s focus being more specific to business or tax payers.
Certainly my business is far too small to be affected by the call by the CBI for simplifying corporation tax, but I’m told in no uncertain terms by my accountant that increased paperwork requirements was the main reason behind their recent increase in his charges: So I’m certainly hopeful there might be some effort to cut down on business red-tape (although I can’t imagine I’ll see a cut in accountancy fees!). I suppose a cut in income tax is unlikely, although pundits are predicting Brown will have at least one big surprise in the speech to end his reign as chancellor (or is that start his Prime Ministership?) with a bang.
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March 21st, 2007 at 5:00 pm
[...] So the 2007 budget was delivered with typical aplomb, with the suspected big bang announcement at the end: A 2% cut in income tax, as well as a rise in the lower edge for higher rate tax. Whilst this is welcome, the corresponding dropping of the 10% band offsets a lot of the savings (and could unfairly hit many lower earners not able to claim or understand the complicated tax credits system) and tweaks elsewhere make this appear to be a ‘neutral’ budget in terms of money raised, but with some headline changes that are sure to be welcomed by many. [...]