Download or read book Audit of Assumptions for Budget 2009 written by National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Chancellor of the Exchequer asked the National Audit Office to audit two new assumptions underlying the Treasury's fiscal projections within the 2009 Budget (HC 407, session 2008-09, ISBN 9780102959161). Firstly, to assess if the 2008 Pre-Budget report assumption for the trend rate of growth, allowing for a downward adjustment to the trend output level of around 4 per cent, for the post-2006 period, together with the further downward adjustment at Budget 2009 to the trend output level of around 1 per cent, is reasonable and cautious. Secondly, to examine whether the approach used by the Treasury to produce estimates of the fiscal aggregates adjusted for the effects of the economic cycle is reasonable.

Download or read book Audit of assumptions for the 2009 pre budget report written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009-12-09 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report by the National Audit Office, made under sections 156 and 157 of the Finance Act 1998, examines the conventions and assumptions underlying the Treasury's fiscal projections within the 2009 pre-budget report (Cm. 7747, ISBN 9780101774727).

Download or read book Audit of assumptions for budget 2010 written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010-03-24 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report examines the conventions and assumptions underlying the fiscal projections within the 2010 Budget (HC 451, session 2009-10, ISBN 9780102964639) that are submitted by the Treasury for examination, along with a review of assumptions on the VAT gap, tobacco revenues, factor shares in national income and funding (debt increase)

Download or read book Pre budget Report 2009 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Treasury Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report acknowledges that deciding the right time for fiscal consolidation requires making a fine judgement about the resilience of the recovery. It emphasises that a plan to restore the health of the public finances must deal with the structural deficit. While the Treasury aims to cut the deficit from 9% of GDP to 3.6% of GDP in four years, the expert witnesses who examined it all criticised the document for not providing enough information about how this will be achieved. Future Budgets and PBRs should attempt to quantify the downside risks around the structural deficit forecast. There will be uncertainty in these figures, but they are produced as part of the Spending Review process so there appears to be no argument against their publication. Similarly the Bank of England publishes forecasts showing the possible range of inflation rates and publishing information about debt interest on a similar basis would be useful. The recession appears to have had substantially less impact on the labour market than might have been feared, though concern remains about the level of youth unemployment. Repossessions have been far lower than expected however it is recommended that the Treasury proceeds cautiously over the timing of removal of Government support in this area. We do not want to see a return to the times of easy credit, but the Government needs to remain aware of the risk that lending will not support renewed private sector growth as the public sector retrenches. The purpose of the tax on bank bonuses is to change behaviour so that banks increase their capital, rather than providing large discretionary payments to employees. The next Parliament needs to examine the effectiveness of any regime introduced by the Financial Services Bill, in terms both of its success in altering bank behaviour, and of its effect on the competitiveness of the UK financial sector

Download or read book Budget 2009 written by Great Britain. Treasury and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Budget sets out the Government's plans for taxation, public spending and economic growth for the coming year. Details announced include: an annual growth rate of 2.5 per cent for 2006-07 with a forecast of 2.75 to 3.25 per cent for 2007-08; an inflation rate of two per cent this year; and public sector borrowing on course for a 16 billion surplus over the economic cycle ending in 2010-11, with net borrowing set at 37 billion for this year and 36 billion next year, falling to 23 billion in the year to 2010-11.

Download or read book Audit of assumptions for budget 2008 written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2008-03-12 with total page 12 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report by the National Audit Office, made under sections 156 and 157 of the Finance Act 1998, examines the conventions and assumptions underlying the Treasury's fiscal projections within the 2008 Budget (HC 388, session 2007-8, ISBN 9780102953336)

Download or read book Budget 2010 written by Great Britain. Treasury and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010-03-24 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Budget sets out the Government's plans for taxation, public spending and economic growth for the coming year. Details announced include: an annual growth rate of 2.5 per cent for 2006-07 with a forecast of 2.75 to 3.25 per cent for 2007-08; an inflation rate of two per cent this year; and public sector borrowing on course for a 16 billion surplus over the economic cycle ending in 2010-11, with net borrowing set at 37 billion for this year and 36 billion next year, falling to 23 billion in the year to 2010-11.

Download or read book Pre budget Report 2008 written by Great Britain. Treasury and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2008 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 2008 Pre-Budget Report presents updated assessments and forecasts of the economy and public finances, and reports on how in the face of major global economic shocks the Government intends to support the economy, businesses and households through these uncertain times while delivering its long-term goals. Measures announced include: temporarily reducing the Value Added Tax (VAT) rate to 15 per cent from1 December 2008 to 31 December 2009; bringing forward £3 billion of capital spending from 2010-11 including introducing a green stimulus supporting low carbon growth and jobs; introducing a new additional higher rate of income tax of 45 per cent for those with incomes above £150,000 from April 2011; increasing national insurance contributions by 0.5 per cent from April 2011; increasing alcohol and tobacco duties; a two pence per litre increase in fuel duty from 1 December). Immediate action to help those individuals and businesses most affected by the economic downturn include: increases in the income tax personal allowance; bringing forward the increase in Child Benefit; increases of the Child Tax Credit and a payment of £60 to all pensioners; help through mortgage rescue and Support for Mortgage Interest schemes for eligible homeowners in difficulty and a commitment from major mortgage lenders not to initiate repossession action within at least three months of an owner-occupier going into arrears; an additional £1.3 billion to support for the unemployed to find a new job; measures to help small and medium-sized enterprises facing credit constraints; a new HMRC Business Payment Support Service to allow businesses in temporary financial difficulty to pay their HMRC tax bills on a timetable they can afford; and more generous tax relief for businesses now making losses and the modification of a number of planned tax reforms, including vehicle excise duty, air passenger duty, and the deferral of the increase in the small companies' rate of corporation tax.

Download or read book Opportunity for All written by and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2004 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Budget 2008 written by Great Britain: H.M. Treasury and published by Stationery Office. This book was released on 2008-03-12 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Budget sets out the Government's plans for taxation, public spending and economic growth for the coming year. The Government reports that the economy is stable and resilient, and continuing to grow, and that its strict fiscal rules are being met. Measures include: further financial support for children to move 250,000 out of poverty; an additional one-off payment for over-80s and over-60s households alongside the Winter Fuel Payment; increased support and access to finance for small firms; a £200 million package to support and bring forward by one year the GCSE targets; postponement of the planned fuel duty increase of 2 pence per litre in April 2008 until October 2008; an increase in alcohol duty rates by 6 per cent from 17 March 2008; laying the ground work for the introduction for five-year carbon budgets (the first of which will be included in Budget 2009); further steps to tackle climate change, including reforms to Vehicle Excise Duty, auctioning of 100 per cent of allowances for large electricity producers in Phase III of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, and that to eliminate single use carrier bags the Government will legislate and impose a charge if retailers do not take voluntary action; further reforms to modernise the tax system, and a number of measures to combat tax fraud and avoidance. (Supporting publications issued alongside the Budget are "The UK economy: analysis of long-term performance and strategic challenges" and "2008 long-term public finance report", HM Treasury - http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/budget/budget_08/bud_bud08_index.cfm). The National Audit Office "Audit of assumptions Budget 2008" is also available (HC 345, ISBN 9780102953367).

Download or read book Pre budget Report 2008 written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Treasury Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Treasury Committee's report on the Pre-Budget Report 2008 (Cm. 7484, ISBN 9780101748421) considers that the balance of risks to the Treasury's forecast, for a swift recovery in economic growth for 2010 after a significant decline in output in 2009, is on the downside. The report highlights the lack of bank lending as the single most critical problem for the economy in the near term. The overall effect of the fiscal stimulus remains uncertain, the cost of the reduction in VAT is considerable and, in the view of the majority of commentators, the Treasury's analysis of its impact is an optimistic one. The report notes that the risk of a self-reinforcing deflationary cycle exists in the UK economy at present and recommends that the Treasury prepare and publish the actions it may consider taking should a period of "quantitative easing" be needed. While the need for lower interest rates to maintain economic growth is crucial at the present time, the needs of savers must not be forgotten and the Treasury should consider measures that will also support savers at this difficult time. The report notes with concern that the Pre-Budget Report contains no policy measures which will significantly advance meeting the 2010 child poverty target.

Download or read book Budget 2007 written by Great Britain. Treasury and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-03-21 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Budget sets out the Government's plans for taxation, public spending and economic growth for the coming year. It focuses on providing support for pensioners and families, increasing employment opportunities and protecting the environment. Measures announced in the 2007 Budget include: basic rate of income tax to be reduced from 22 pence to 20 pence from April 2008; higher rate income tax threshold to be raised by £800 a year in April 2009; Working Tax Credit threshold to be increased by £1200 to £6420 in April 2008; higher personal allowances for those aged 65 or over to be raised by £1180 in April 2008; Child Tax Credit to be increased by £150 per year in April 2008 and Child Benefit for the eldest child to be raised to £20 a week in April 2010; headline Corporation Tax to be lowered from 30 per cent to 28 per cent from April 2008; increase of 2 pence per litre in fuel duty rates from 1 October 2007; changes to Vehicle Excise Duty for the next three years, with rates for the most polluting cars rising to £400 and for clean cars falling to £35; duty on beer and cider rises to 1p a pint, 5p for wine, 11p for cigarettes; Inheriatnce Tax threshold will rise from £285,000 to £350,000 in 2010; ISA savings limit up from £3,000 to £3,600; measures to improve energy efficiency of all homes by the end of the next decade.

Download or read book Pre budget Report 2008 written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Environmental Audit Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report examines, firstly, the Treasury's response to recession. The fiscal stimulus measures intended to pull the economy out of recession represent an invaluable opportunity to transform the UK into a low carbon economy. But meeting climate change and renewable energy targets will require a step-change in environmental investment. This year's Pre-Budget Report announced a £535m package of green fiscal stimulus measures designed to tackle economic and environmental problems simultaneously. This investment is welcome, but the scale too small- most of this funding was already committed, and will be offset by reduced spending in 2010-11. Extra funding announced for the Warm Front programme will not deliver the scale and speed of change that is needed. Programmes aimed at improving the energy efficiency of existing buildings should be the number one priority for green fiscal stimulus. It is disappointing that the wider fiscal stimulus package contains hundreds of millions of pounds for road building and widening. The Treasury should publish an assessment of the net impacts of its fiscal stimulus package on the environment. The second part of the report looks at green taxation. In real terms, revenue from green taxes has gone down slightly since 1998, while revenue from all taxation has increased by around 30 per cent. On aviation taxes, the Committee criticise the Treasury's backtracking on replacing Air Passenger Duty with a 'per plane' charge, and exhorts the Government to seek reform of the Chicago Convention so as to allow taxation of international aviation fuel. On motoring taxes, it calls for re-examination of the merits and practicalities of a 'car scrappage' scheme to pay people to trade in their existing, older cars, for newer, more efficient models.

Download or read book The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report written by Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission and published by Cosimo, Inc.. This book was released on 2011-05-01 with total page 692 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report, published by the U.S. Government and the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in early 2011, is the official government report on the United States financial collapse and the review of major financial institutions that bankrupted and failed, or would have without help from the government. The commission and the report were implemented after Congress passed an act in 2009 to review and prevent fraudulent activity. The report details, among other things, the periods before, during, and after the crisis, what led up to it, and analyses of subprime mortgage lending, credit expansion and banking policies, the collapse of companies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the federal bailouts of Lehman and AIG. It also discusses the aftermath of the fallout and our current state. This report should be of interest to anyone concerned about the financial situation in the U.S. and around the world.THE FINANCIAL CRISIS INQUIRY COMMISSION is an independent, bi-partisan, government-appointed panel of 10 people that was created to "examine the causes, domestic and global, of the current financial and economic crisis in the United States." It was established as part of the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009. The commission consisted of private citizens with expertise in economics and finance, banking, housing, market regulation, and consumer protection. They examined and reported on "the collapse of major financial institutions that failed or would have failed if not for exceptional assistance from the government."News Dissector DANNY SCHECHTER is a journalist, blogger and filmmaker. He has been reporting on economic crises since the 1980's when he was with ABC News. His film In Debt We Trust warned of the economic meltdown in 2006. He has since written three books on the subject including Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity (Cosimo Books, 2008), and The Crime Of Our Time: Why Wall Street Is Not Too Big to Jail (Disinfo Books, 2011), a companion to his latest film Plunder The Crime Of Our Time. He can be reached online at www.newsdissector.com.

Download or read book The 2005 Pre budget Report written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Treasury Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2006-01-25 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Committee's report examines the Government's Pre-Budget Report 2005 (Cm. 6701, ISBN 0101670125) published in December 2005. Issues discussed include: the state of the economy (including the UK Presidency of the G8, UK economic growth estimates for 2006 and beyond, and consumer spending) and public finance matters; as well as issues relating to taxation and pensions. Recommendations made include that the Treasury should give at least four weeks notice of the date of the Pre-Budget Report in order to enable sufficient parliamentary scrutiny, and if this target is not met, the Treasury should give an account of the reasons why.

Download or read book Maintaining financial stability across the United Kingdom s banking system written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Public Accounts Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010-02-09 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2007, financial institutions across the world began to encounter difficulties raising the funds needed to keep their operations going, leading to a crisis of confidence in the banking system. In response, governments have intervened to support the financial system. The complexity of the problems across the financial sector and the speed with which events unfolded presented the Treasury and the other Tripartite Authorities with a formidable challenge. There have been no disorderly failures of UK banks, and no retail depositor in a bank operating in the UK has lost money. To date a range of indicators, including benchmark interest rates for wholesale funding, bank share prices and the perceived risk of defaults, have stabilised and improved. But the scale of the support required from the UK taxpayer to maintain financial stability, totalling around £850 billion, has been truly staggering. In responding to the crisis the Treasury was heavily reliant on the use of external advisers, and the terms allowed for the potential payment of success fees in situations where no success criteria were specified, a practice wholly inappropriate in the public sector. Lending to business, vital to the recovery of the economy, is falling short of legally-binding commitments entered into by two of the banks that received the most support: the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Lloyds Banking Group. The priority now is to get the best value for the taxpayer from the huge sums of public money invested in the banks.

Download or read book Budget 2008 written by Great Britain. Treasury and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2008-03-12 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Budget sets out the Government's plans for taxation, public spending and economic growth for the coming year. The Government reports that the economy is stable and resilient, and continuing to grow, and that its strict fiscal rules are being met. Measures include: further financial support for children to move 250,000 out of poverty; an additional one-off payment for over-80s and over-60s households alongside the Winter Fuel Payment; increased support and access to finance for small firms; a £200 million package to support and bring forward by one year the GCSE targets; postponement of the planned fuel duty increase of 2 pence per litre in April 2008 until October 2008; an increase in alcohol duty rates by 6 per cent from 17 March 2008; laying the ground work for the introduction for five-year carbon budgets (the first of which will be included in Budget 2009); further steps to tackle climate change, including reforms to Vehicle Excise Duty, auctioning of 100 per cent of allowances for large electricity producers in Phase III of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, and that to eliminate single use carrier bags the Government will legislate and impose a charge if retailers do not take voluntary action; further reforms to modernise the tax system, and a number of measures to combat tax fraud and avoidance. (Supporting publications issued alongside the Budget are "The UK economy: analysis of long-term performance and strategic challenges" and "2008 long-term public finance report", HM Treasury - http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/budget/budget_08/bud_bud08_index.cfm). The National Audit Office "Audit of assumptions Budget 2008" is also available (HC 345, ISBN 9780102953367).