PRESS RELEASE
22 March 2007
Where has all the money gone? Tax cons not tax
cuts plague Brown’s final budget
Gordon Brown
delivered his 11th and final budget
yesterday (21 March). He promised a big budget
however his last submission was merely a big tax
con.
In his stealthiest
tax yet, the chancellor has paid for his 2p cut
in income tax by abolishing the 10p rate and
putting National Insurance Contributions up. In
the small print of the Budget is an admission
that the tax burden will continue to rise.
Furthermore, buried
in the small print are new stealth taxes which
will hit low earners by doubling his 10p tax
band. His three income tax changes on working
families are not a tax cut, but raise £340
million extra revenue.
Malcolm Moss MP
says:
“The Treasury claim
it’s a £2.5bn cut in tax. That’s because they
ignore the £2.6bn rise in NIC over two years.
The chancellor is merely giving with one hand
and taking back with the other.”
Additionally taxes
on business are a tax rise, raising £1bn in
2008/9 and £1.8bn the following year.
Corporation tax may have been lowered from 30pc
to 28pc, however the Chancellor fully intends to
recoup this loss by putting up the tax on small
business from 19pc to 22pc.
Malcolm Moss MP
says:
“The NHS is the
biggest political issue of the day yet Brown
mentioned the Health Service just once in his
speech: to re-announce what he first said 3
years ago. The only new news for the NHS is a
stealth tax on ‘managed service companies’. The
NHS is the biggest employer of managed service
companies! The new stealth tax will hit NHS
staff hardest. Raised hopes that we would be
able to expand on the services of Doddington
Hospital seem to have collapsed after the
Chancellors announcement.
Education spending
growth is set to fall as well, to 2.5% lower
than the growth of the economy, and lower than
the 5.3% under Labour’s spending reviews to
date.
Malcolm Moss says:
“After 101 stealth taxes, no wonder everyone is
asking where all our money has gone?”
Gordon Brown also
introduced a third fiscal rule in his budget
submission yesterday. He plans to share the
proceeds of growth.
Malcolm Moss says:
“We welcome the
Chancellor’s admission that Conservative policy
is the right one for Britain’s future. However
after attacking us for this policy as recently
as last month it seems strange he has suddenly
made such a U-turn. This is merely evidence of
the fact that the Chancellor is unable to come
up with strong policies that benefit society
today. He represents Britain’s past not our
future.”
