What do politicians want to do with tax? They want to raise revenue to fund public spending and they want to use tax policy as a political carrot. Clearly the two completely contradict each other. Most people don’t like paying tax. It’s the nature of my work that a lot of people ask how they can “get round the system” or “isn’t there a way…

HMRC has recently published the 2019 edition of Measuring tax gaps which shows estimates of tax lost in 2017/18. Worryingly, the “gap” for 2018/18 is estimated at £35 bn, or 5.6% of total tax due. The 2017/17 figure was £33 bn (5.7%), so little progress has been made in reducing this. How does this fit, then, with our next PM’s wish to cut taxes? A…

Innovation – why we’re missing a trick for early-stage financing There’s a market failure in financing early-stage technology companies. Anyone who watches “Dragons’ Den” will know there’s a fine balance between risk and reward, but for early-stage technology companies, a number of factors combine to make this an extremely tough area. The thoughts and solution outlined below are the result of input from several authors…

Short and to the point. What else could the Chancellor do with so much political and structural uncertainty surrounding this statement? He said that the UK economy continues to grow, with wages increasing and unemployment at historic lows, providing a solid foundation on which to build Britain’s economic future. With borrowing and debt both forecast to be lower in every year than at last year’s…

Why do businesses create IP and what additional help do they need to encourage this? Incentives come in various forms, monetary or non-monetary, and they tend to be applied to induce product-orientated development ideas, which can be used in combinations of new and existing technologies and resources (Schumpeter,1934, writing in the Theory of Economic Development, published by Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA). But why are…

Lots of small changes. Many one-off giveaways. Lots of headline-grabbing announcements. Legislative tinkering. The Chancellor “Austerity is coming to an end but discipline will remain”. So, the Budget was earlier than we were expecting, to avoid clashing with the final stage of Brexit negotiations in November. Of course, this is the final Budget when the UK is part of the European Union, so how the…

So, the Chancellor has surprised many by announcing that the Budget will be on 29 October. In my previous blog I speculated why it had moved to a Monday and have been scratching my head ever since wondering what this Budget might surprise us with. I guess he had possibly hoped that an outline Brexit deal would have been done before he had to unveil…

The Chancellor has announced that the Autumn Budget will take place on Monday 29 October. The day is much earlier than was expected and will see the second Autumn Budget since Mr Hammond abolished the Autumn Statement in 2016, and moved the then Spring Budget to the autumn. This year, the Budget will fall on a Monday, rather than the normal day which is Wednesday.…

Our view – both good and bad The Treasury has published draft provisions for Finance Bill 2018-19. This was first published for consultation on 6 July 2018. This publication of draft legislation ahead of its introduction to Parliament is part of the government’s tax policy making process, which was updated last December. The draft legislation runs to some 222 pages, including 40 draft clauses and…