Coalition tax policies unveiled mark the end of ‘E’ Relief

Last week, the new Conservative LibDem coalition government was announced amid a flurry of guarded excitement and scepticism. The coalition has been quick to stamp out suggestions that their political differences will be too marked to produce effective financial policy and so far, the speed with which agreements have been reached is impressive and very positive in terms of their quality.

Local Business Owners React to the Pre-Budget Report

We predicted it would be a controversial pre-budget report and it lived up to expectations, with some headline measures that are clearly designed to win over the hearts and minds of Labour’s core supporters. But in spite of this, most observers would agree that overall, it was a pretty good result for Surrey’s business owners.

VAT should be ‘scrapped on green appliances’

VAT should be scrapped on energy-efficient household appliances, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) has said.

In its Pre-Budget submission to the Chancellor, the BRC is calling for the tax to be removed from ‘green’ appliances to help curb carbon emissions and cut fuel bills.

It claims the move, which would cost around £507 million per year in lost VAT receipts, could reduce the UK’s CO 2 output by 1.3 million tonnes each year by 2020.