Thursday, March 22, 2007

KPMG and IFS give verdict on budget winners and losers

KPMG have number crunched the budget and come up with the winners and losers based on the NI and Income tax changes.

BIGGEST LOSERS: Those earning £17,000 a year or less who will pay £131 a year more.

BIGGEST WINNERS: Those earning about £35,000 a year who keep £353 a year more.

In all this confusion, I usually head for the Institute of Fiscal studies, who say:

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) says that in all, £13.2bn is being given away by the Chancellor, while £10.7bn is being raised by him in extra tax.
And the government argues out that tax credits are available to boost the incomes of the poorest families, offsetting the income tax increases affecting the lowest paid.
Critics of that approach say that all depends on the claimants actually claiming their money, and then receiving the right amount of money from an extremely complex tax credit system.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies concludes that most families will benefit from some of Gordon Brown's measures and lose from others.
"However," says Mike Brewer of the IFS, "almost 1 in 5 families in the UK will lose and the losers will come from across the income distribution, and include some families with children."

2 comments:

  1. Did you notice, in addition, that defence spending has been cut? Even including the "additional £400m" mentioned in the Budget speech? The total "departmental spending limit" for defence remains at £40.8bn for fiscal 2007/08 (including the £400m reserve), which is the estimated outturn for 2006/07. (Detailed arithmetic plus link to Treasury numbers here.)

    Allowing for inflation of 2%, this means a cut in real terms of £816m. Not what was announced.

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  2. No I didn't. Blimey. Clever stuff. Both from you in spotting it and, in a twisted sort of way, from Gordon for hiding it (I suppose).

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