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Osborne plans biggest tax avoidance clampdown since 2004

by: IFAonline
  • 22/03/2011
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Osborne plans biggest tax avoidance clampdown since 2004
The Chancellor will use Wednesday’s Budget to announce the biggest clampdown on tax avoidance since 2004, raising twice as much as the £500m a year predicted when the initiative was launched last December.

In what some are dubbing a “Robin Hood” Budget, George Osborne will close tax loopholes used by high net worth individuals and introduce a “Learjet levy” on people using private jets, the Financial Times reports.

The £1bn in extra taxes will fund small sweeteners to motorists, low earners and holidaymakers.

Osborne will use the extra taxes from the Britain’s richest to help ease the pressure faced by families on low and middle incomes, mainly through raising the income tax threshold and by cutting planned fuel duty rises.

The Chancellor will describe the measures as evidence of “fairness”, though some in the City may see it as a form of revenge after Osborne’s plea for bonus restraint went largely unheeded in the financial sector.

Executive pensions are believed to be another target as part of a crackdown on ‘hidden’ pay in a Budget aimed at boosting economic growth this week.

George Osborne will tighten the rules around offshore trusts – dubbed ‘efurbs’ – saying they are a form of “disguised remuneration”.

Closing the pensions loophole will mean the trusts will become subject to income tax at up to 50%.

 

 

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