logo
Preliminary UK Tax Data Eases Worries of Non-Dom Exodus, FT Says

Preliminary UK Tax Data Eases Worries of Non-Dom Exodus, FT Says

Bloomberg12 hours ago
The number of wealthy individuals leaving the UK in response to recent tax changes is so far in line with official predictions, the Financial Times said, citing people briefed on the findings of a HMRC analysis.
Monthly payroll data reviewed by HMRC suggest that the number of non-dom departures broadly conforms with projections from the Office for Budget Responsibility that one in four with trusts would leave, the FT reported.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Balfour Beatty PLC (BAFBF) (H1 2025) Earnings Call Highlights: Record Order Book and UK ...
Balfour Beatty PLC (BAFBF) (H1 2025) Earnings Call Highlights: Record Order Book and UK ...

Yahoo

time6 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Balfour Beatty PLC (BAFBF) (H1 2025) Earnings Call Highlights: Record Order Book and UK ...

Release Date: August 13, 2025 For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. Positive Points Balfour Beatty PLC (BAFBF) achieved a 3% margin in UK construction, a year earlier than forecasted. The company has a record order book of 19.5 billion, with a secured pipeline of another 20 billion. Strong performance in UK construction and support services, with profits growing by 35% in UK construction. The company is engaged in significant projects like Sizewell C and Lower Thames Crossing, indicating a robust growth pipeline. Balfour Beatty PLC (BAFBF) increased its interim dividend by 11% to 4.2p per share, reflecting confidence in ongoing shareholder returns. Negative Points US construction faced a loss due to cost overruns and schedule delays in a civil highways project in Texas. Profit for the period decreased by 10% to 73 million, partly due to lower net finance income. Earnings per share decreased by 6% to 14.4p. The valuation of the investments portfolio decreased by 8% due to increased discount rates and currency fluctuations. The US military housing monitorship has been extended, indicating ongoing challenges in that segment. Q & A Highlights Warning! GuruFocus has detected 8 Warning Sign with BAFBF. Q: Could you talk about the level of confidence you have on the US margin and EBA generation in the backlog over the coming years? A: Leo Quinn, Group Chief Executive, explained that the growth of the US buildings business is underpinned by diversification across the continent. The first half was strong for buildings, but the Civils Project in Texas, delivered in joint venture, affected results. The risk in the business is passed down to the supply chain, which is reflected in the low margin return. The company is confident in the business model's growth potential. Q: Can you talk about what went wrong with US civils and the risk profile of new contracts in Texas? A: Leo Quinn noted that the issue with the Texas contract was related to subcontractors and design, leading to rework. The company has not engaged in joint ventures in Texas with the same partner for the last 18 months due to lack of value add. The company is pursuing cost recovery from third parties and is confident in a positive outcome. Q: On the US monitorship, how does the extension impact your attitude towards the asset? A: Phil Harrison, CFO, stated that the bulk of the work will be completed by year-end, with the monitorship process concluding by June next year. The company anticipates dealing with it within current cost budgets. Q: Are there any pockets of weakness in the US buildings market? A: Leo Quinn mentioned that the US buildings market continues to perform well, with a strong first half. The company is encouraged by the pipeline and market-leading position in sectors like schools in California. Q: On UK construction, can you maintain or exceed the 3% margin target? A: Leo Quinn expressed confidence in maintaining and potentially exceeding the 3% margin target, citing specialized services and growth rates. The company aims to improve margins further. For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Sign in to access your portfolio

From Pulitzer winners to pink slips: Chicago media makes big moves this summer
From Pulitzer winners to pink slips: Chicago media makes big moves this summer

Axios

time7 minutes ago

  • Axios

From Pulitzer winners to pink slips: Chicago media makes big moves this summer

Chicago Public Media's search for a new leader to run the WBEZ/Sun-Times newsroom is over: Pulitzer Prize-winning Kimbriell Kelly returns to Chicago to take the job. Kelly, who once wrote for the Chicago Reporter and produced radio programming for WBEZ, has national experience as a bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times and a reporter at the Washington Post. What they're saying:"Kimbriell has the deep Chicago roots, journalistic excellence, and forward-looking vision to help shape the future of our integrated newsroom," CPM CEO Melissa Bell said in a statement. Zoom in: Kelly returns to Chicago as the public media organization faces turmoil. The company recently offered buyouts to select staff and laid off others to make ends meet. That was before Congress voted to rescind federal funding, which resulted in a loss of $3 million annually, 6% of the organization's yearly budget. Kelly succeeds Jennifer Kho, who the company says will move to a special project dealing with the future of public media. In other local news: 🍽️ Eater Chicago was impacted by its parent company Vox Media's latest round of layoffs. Longtime award-winning editor and journalist Ashok Selvam was let go. It's unclear who replaces him, but the site is still up with feature stories from other writers. 🏀 Earlier this year, sports fans were shocked by the surprise firing of longtime host Dan Bernstein by 670 "The Score." Bernstein had a run-in with another social media user on X. 📺 WGN-TV is bringing in a new news director. Akemi Harrison will oversee all newsgathering on the WGN TV platforms. She previously was the news director at NBC Chicago. On the WGN Radio side, hosts Bob Sirott and John Landecker will host a three-hour show Friday night reflecting on their careers, most notably their time together at WLS in the 1970s. They are calling it "For Radio Geeks Only." It airs 7-10pm. 📈 Finally, the July radio ratings just came out, and for the first time in recent memory, no station scored more than 5% of the market share.

A DOGE AI Tool Called SweetREX Is Coming to Slash US Government Regulation
A DOGE AI Tool Called SweetREX Is Coming to Slash US Government Regulation

WIRED

time8 minutes ago

  • WIRED

A DOGE AI Tool Called SweetREX Is Coming to Slash US Government Regulation

Aug 14, 2025 3:00 PM Named for its developer, an undergrad who took leave from UChicago to become a DOGE affiliate, a new AI tool automates the review of federal regulations and flags rules it thinks can be eliminated. The Robert C. Weaver Federal Building, the current headquarters of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, is seen on July 8, 2025, in Washington, DC. Photograph:Efforts to gut regulation across the US government using AI are well underway. On Wednesday, the Office of the Chief Information Officer at the Office of Management and Budget hosted a video call to discuss an AI tool being used to cut federal regulations, which the office called SweetREX Deregulation AI. The tool, which is still being developed, is built to identify sections of regulations that aren't required by statute, then expedite the process for adopting updated regulations. The development and rollout of what is being formally called the SweetREX Deregulation AI Plan Builder, or SweetREX DAIP, is meant to help achieve the goals laid out in President Donald Trump's 'Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation' executive order, which aims to 'promote prudent financial management and alleviate unnecessary regulatory burdens.' Industrial-scale deregulation is a core aim laid out in Project 2025, the document that has served as a playbook for the second Trump administration. The so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has also estimated that '50 percent of all federal regulations can be eliminated,' according to a July 1, 2025, PowerPoint presentation obtained by The Washington Post. To this end, SweetREX was developed by associates of DOGE operating out of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The plan is to roll it out to other US agencies. Members of the call included staffers from across the government, including the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of State, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, among others. Christopher Sweet, a DOGE affiliate who was initially introduced to colleagues as a 'special assistant' and who was until recently a third-year student at the University of Chicago, co-led the call and was identified as the primary developer of SweetREX (thus, its name). He told colleagues that tools from Anthropic and OpenAI will be increasingly utilized by federal workers and that 'a lot of the productivity boosts will come from the tools that are built around these platforms.' Sweet said that for SweetREX, they are 'primarily using the Google family of models, so primarily Gemini.' Neither Sweet nor OMB immediately responded to WIRED's request for comment. HUD's press office responded only to say the request was 'under review.' Google did not yet respond to a request for comment. Previously, WIRED reported on the output of an AI tool for deregulation at HUD. A spreadsheet detailed how many words could be eliminated from individual regulations and gave a percentage figure indicating how noncompliant the regulations were; how that percentage was calculated was unclear. At the time, Sweet did not respond to a request for comment, and a HUD spokesperson said the agency does not comment on individual personnel. Leading Wednesday's call alongside Sweet was Scott Langmack, a DOGE-affiliated senior adviser at HUD and, according to his LinkedIn profile, the COO of technology company Kukun. (WIRED previously reported that he had application-level access to critical HUD systems; Kukun is a proptech firm that is, according to its website, 'on a long-term mission to aggregate the hardest to find data.') While Sweet led the development side of SweetREX, Langmack said he was taking point on demoing the tool for different agencies and pitching them on its benefits. He claimed, for example, that the tool is capable of reducing the time spent reviewing and proposing edited regulations from months to just a few hours or days. Langmack did not immediate respond to a request for comment. The 'decision tool' feature within SweetREX flags sections of regulations that it deems extraneous according to relevant statutes, according to Sweet and Langmack. US government attorneys and policymakers can then review the AI platform's proposed changes and make adjustments, Sweet and Langmack said. The tool will also create a draft of the AI-altered regulation for review. Before new or updated regulations are adopted, an agency may publish an 'Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking,' which allows any member of the public to comment on the changes to the regulation. In addition to flagging clauses in regulation as extraneous, SweetREX will also have the ability to group the public's comments on proposed changes to federal rules into AI-determined 'buckets,' according to details shared on the call. The tool will further categorize the types of people or entities submitting comments, such as whether they're an individual or a 'sophisticated' corporate commenter. Last month, a HUD worker told WIRED that combing through the regulations flagged by the AI to explain why they might still be needed was 'painful.' However, several people who asked questions during Wednesday's call praised SweetREX as 'awesome' and 'great.' During the call, a person in the video meeting identified as Steve Davis piped in. 'Would it be possible to open source software and put it up on GitHub?' he asked. (The answer was, essentially, 'maybe.') Steve Davis is also the name of Musk's top lieutenant, who earlier this summer left his post as a special government employee involved with running DOGE and returned to the private sector as the president of Musk's Boring Company—a title he did not abdicate during his time in government. After his departure, DOGE staffers were reportedly made uncomfortable by him seemingly continuing to run DOGE despite not working for the government. Davis did not immediately respond to WIRED's request for comment.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store