Latest news with #taxPolicy
Bloomberg
2 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Flight From UK Markets Is Broader Than Listing Rules, Rathi Says
The exodus of companies from the London stock market is driven by volatility in the pound, tax and pension policies as well as the 'sheer size of the US market,' rather than its listing rules, according to the Financial Conduct Authority Chief Executive Officer Nikhil Rathi. 'I'm not hearing that it's regulatory, I'm hearing that it's much wider in terms of what's happening in UK, European and indeed certain other non-European capital markets,' Rathi told the Treasury select committee on Tuesday.
Bloomberg
29-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Starmer to Accuse Farage of Truss-Style ‘Fantasy' Economic Plans
Keir Starmer is expected to hit back at what he described as Nigel Farage's 'fantasy economics,' in the latest sign that the Labour prime minister believes he must act to arrest Reform UK's surge in opinion polls. Starmer will argue on Thursday that tax-and-spend policies like those laid out by Farage earlier this week would risk a market meltdown similar to the 'mini-budget' crisis that prompted then-Conservative Prime Minister Liz Truss to step down after weeks in office in 2022, according to a statement from the Labour Party. The Reform leader promised, among other things, to lift the point at which workers start paying income tax to £20,000 ($27,000) from £12,570, which the Institute for Fiscal Studies said could cost in excess of £50 billion annually.
The Guardian
15-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Delay farmer inheritance tax changes ‘to allow for better formulation', say MPs
A group of influential MPs has urged the government to delay controversial planned changes to inheritance tax for farmers to 'allow for better formulation of tax policy' and to protect vulnerable farmers by giving them more time to seek advice. The environment, food and rural affairs (Efra) committee has called on the government to hold off announcing its overhaul of agricultural property relief and business property relief until October 2026, before bringing them into effect from April 2027. The report said such a move 'would allow for better formulation of tax policy and provide the government with an opportunity to convey a positive long-term vision for farming'. They added that the planned changes 'threaten to affect the most vulnerable' and a pause would give them 'more time to seek appropriate professional advice' while allowing the government time to consider other options. The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, caused uproar among much of the farming sector in October when she announced plans in her budget to bring farms and other agricultural property into inheritance tax rules, in order to raise money for public services and close a tax loophole exploited by some wealthy landowners. Ending a decades-long exemption for farms, Reeves's plans to make inheritors pay 20% of the value of agricultural and business property above £1m have sparked large-scale protests in recent months and led to ministers' speeches being drowned out by tractor horns. MPs on the cross-party Efra committee have raised concerns that the changes announced in the budget were made without adequate consultation, impact assessment or assessment of affordability, with a risk of producing unintended consequences. While broadly supportive of the government's inheritance tax changes, the committee is calling on ministers to consult on their proposals to avoid hurting small family farms. Alistair Carmichael, the chair of the Efra committee and a Liberal Democrat MP, criticised the way the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs had communicated with farmers, particularly the sudden closure of a key post-Brexit subsidy scheme, the sustainable farming incentive. 'The way in which the government has behaved over recent months has clearly negatively affected the confidence and wellbeing of farmers,' Carmichael said. 'We have seen that Defra's communications with farmers have been poor, with confusing and sometimes contradictory messaging. There has been a lack of adequate consultation. Policies affecting farmers have been announced without due consideration or explanation of their impact or their rationale.' Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion He urged the government to adopt the committee's recommendations, saying ministers had an opportunity to rebuild trust and confidence in the farming sector. 'Farmers ought to be the essential element in the government's plans both to achieve food security and to restore and protect the environment,' he said.
RNZ News
14-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Coalition deride Green budget as 'Marxist' and 'left-wing Trumpism'
Coalition members have slammed the Green Party's alternative budget. Photo: RNZ Coalition members are responding to the Green Party's alternative budget with derision, while Labour distanced itself from the proposal, saying it would set out its own tax policy this year. The prime minister said it is "clown show economics" and an "absolute circus" while the deputy prime minister held up a printed copy of the hammer and sickle symbol to reporters, calling the co-leaders "Chloe Marx and Marama Engels". The Greens have pledged free GP visits and free childcare funded through new taxes and increased borrowing. The policies include a wealth tax, a private jet tax, ending interest deductibility for landlords, restoring the 10-year "bright-line" test, doubling minerals royalties and changes to ACC levies. The plan would see net debt climb from 45 percent of GDP to above 53 percent by the 2028/29 financial year. According to the Greens' calculations, the new revenue streams would fund a free public health service providing GP and nursing services, free annual dental check-ups and basic dental care, as well as restoring free prescriptions. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon slammed the policy and said the Labour-Greens prescription would be to "tax more, borrow more and spend more." Luxon laughed at the idea of a private jet tax, dismissed the budget, and said the "whole thing's madness." "It's just hard to even think about it as economic policy, isn't it? It's just absolute madness and kookiness." He said the New Zealand people did not want more tax, more spending and more borrowing. Echoing the prime minister, Finance Minister Nicola Willis called it a "ticket to the clown-show," and "an absolute circus of an idea." She said it would be a way to "kill all profit, all businesses in New Zealand - absolutely absurd" and Labour needed to rule out the "clown show manifesto". "If they don't, what they're saying to New Zealanders is, we're prepared to trash your economy so that we can grab power." When Willis was told Labour had not ruled anything in or out yet, she said the party was "on the train to the clown show". "If they will not rule it out, they are saying they are prepared to govern like a circus, because that is almost a soviet manifesto in terms of the confiscation of wealth, income and business it promotes." She said it showed how far Labour had departed from "economic common sense." New Zealand First leader Winston Peters brought a printed copy of the Greens' alternative budget through Parliament on his way into the House. "I've got the manifesto by Chloe Marx and Marama Engels," he said, referring to Green co-leaders Chlöe Swarbrick and Marama Davidson. He said the budget was "Marxist" and added a sheet to his printout with the communist hammer and sickle symbol, saying that was "what it's all about - unbelievable". He ruled out forming a coalition with the Green Party. "I'm not wasting my time with the Green Party's pink, Marxist plan." He said the country would be "Venezuela" and "Myanmar tomorrow". ACT leader David Seymour said the document was a "Green-with-envy budget" and also mentioned Venezuela, saying Swarbrick should move there "where they already have the same policies, and 90 percent live in poverty". "This Green budget said your problems are caused by other people's success, and your solution is to take other people's money with more taxes. "That's the opposite of the philosophy that makes any country thrive and offer better lives to its people." In regards to the tax on private jets, Seymour said it was "left-wing Trumpism" and "south Pacific populism." "The idea that this is a serious public policy instead of a marketing slogan with a policy growing out of it, I believe, is fatuous; this is a Green Party that has become populist." Seymour questioned how many private jets there were, and said a tax on them could deter wealthy visitors. Swarbrick said the number had doubled in the past decade, to about 700 a year and defended the $5000 cost per passenger, saying it would not be "that much of a drop in the bucket". Green co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone "This is about putting a stake in the ground. The average New Zealander, the average person out there across the world right now ... is doing their absolute best to make the right transport choices, to stop using plastic straws, but we need those who can afford to fly private jets around the world to pay their fair share." She was not surprised by Seymour's "Green with envy" characterisation. "This is the same guy who wants to cut taxes for the wealthiest in this country and steal our schoolkids' lunch money." Davidson said they had not yet discussed with Labour which aspects of the Budget could be retained under any potential coalition deal. "We know that it is the people that have the power to choose this plan," she said. "What we are presenting today is showing how we can actually take care of people and our planet, we have got enough to look after our people." Asked about whether it lined up with Labour's ideology, she said it was based on an understanding from "decades of underinvestment into the things that people need, into the things that our environment needs". Labour's leader Chris Hipkins said he had only seen the headlines and his party would set out its own tax policy this year. He has previously spoken about wanting to increase overall debt levels, but said this would depend on what was being spent on. "If you're borrowing money to pay for long-term infrastructure assets that are going to benefit the country in the long term, that's different from borrowing money for day-to-day consumption like more people on an unemployment benefit. "We do need to invest in the fact that our water infrastructure's run down, our roads are run down, our schools and hospitals are run down, we're going to need to invest in those things. "Doing those in a way that actually means more people have jobs, fewer people are claiming unemployment benefits, that's going to be better for the economy than the course the current government are taking." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
