IFS
Forget 50p — scrap the 60p tax rate
Imagine if a Chancellor stood up and announced that those earning up to £100,000 would pay a 40p tax rate, those earning £100,000 to £112,950 will pay a 60p rate,… Continue reading
20 Comments
Tinkering with tax isn’t enough
Should the 10p tax rate be brought back? Should the top rate be higher, or lower? Can the personal allowance be raised further? Is a mansion tax a good idea?… Continue reading
65 Comments
Briefing: Simplifying the state pension
There certainly seems to be something to be said for keeping an effective minister in the same post. After two years and eight months in the job, Steve Webb is… Continue reading
23 Comments
A budget for the squeezed middle
Ed Miliband may have coined the term, but it seems George Osborne has the squeezed middle on his mind too. The overall effect of yesterday’s budget* was to take from… Continue reading
6 Comments
IFS warns Osborne: don’t cook the books, like Brown
The Institute for Fiscal Studies has today published its attempt to predict what the OBR forecasts will show when they’re released as George Osborne sits down after delivering his Autumn… Continue reading
26 Comments
Balls wants you to trust him
It’s only ten days or so since Ed Balls was last quizzed by Andrew Neil, but there he was rehashing many of the same lines on the Sunday Politics today.… Continue reading
30 Comments
Is Alexander ushering in Austerity Squared?
23rd April, 2012 — mark it down in your calendars, CoffeeHousers. For, after weeks of froth and fury about tax, today’s the day when the government focused on spending cuts… Continue reading
23 Comments
Balls goes on the attack over tax credits
After all the commotion about various policies in last month’s Budget, the focus this morning has shifted to measures announced back in 2010. Why? Because they take effect tomorrow. So… Continue reading
8 Comments
The IFS gives its Budget verdict
The Institute for Fiscal Studies’ briefing is always a good place to pick up a few interesting nuggets of detail about the Budget — and this year’s is no exception.… Continue reading
13 Comments
The man behind the Budget
In today’s Telegraph, I profile Rupert Harrison, chief economic adviser to George Osborne and the man who’ll do more than anything else (including his boss) to shape next week’s Budget.… Continue reading
26 Comments
The conflict over 50p has escalated once again
Just like fuel duty, George Osborne can’t shake off the fury and discontent over the 50p tax rate. This morning, in a letter to the Telegraph, 537 bosses of small-to-medium-size… Continue reading
33 Comments
The 50p tax debate won’t be settled this year — but it might be escalated
More evidence this morning that the government won’t be dropping the 50p rate any time soon, in the form of an interview with Danny Alexander. ‘This is not the time… Continue reading
27 Comments
Your six-point guide to the Green Budget
As promised earlier, here’s my more detailed supplementary take on today’s IFS Green Budget. I’ve distilled it down into six points, but obviously there’s much, much more in the actual… Continue reading
3 Comments
The view from the Institute for Fiscal Studies
It’s the halftime coffee break here at the launch of the Institute for Fiscal Studies’ Green Budget, so I thought I’d send CoffeeHousers a quick update. But first, just to… Continue reading
8 CommentsWe need better schools, not more spending
More money, better services? You might have thought that Gordon Brown had already tested that theory to destruction, but here it is again in the coverage of today’s Institute for… Continue reading
13 CommentsRight to reply: The truth behind the poverty figures
This morning, Fraser published a piece criticising the Institute for Fiscal Studies’ definition of poverty. Here is a counterpunch from Julia Unwin, Chief Executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, which… Continue reading
46 CommentsThe poverty of the poverty measure
‘400,000 children will fall into relative poverty by 2015, says IFS’ we read on The Guardian’s front page today — yes, one of the most pernicious ideas of recent years… Continue reading
33 CommentsIs the health budget falling or not?
Before the election, the Conservatives promised they’d "protect" the NHS, which they defined as increasing its real-terms budget year-on-year. This is a rather dangerous promise because it makes ministers hostage… Continue reading
7 Comments50p tax isn’t just hurting the economy, but Treasury revenues too
So where were these 20 economists when Gordon Brown first set the 50p trap for George Osborne? Then, Brown’s gamble was that the Shadow Chancellor was a political strategist with… Continue reading
24 CommentsBrown still hovers over the 50p tax debate
A number of papers report today that George Osborne is minded to replace the 50p tax with Gordon Brown’s original proposal: a 45p tax. How the ex-PM will be laughing.… Continue reading
31 Comments