Chancellor Alistair Darling has just delivered his Budget and the key points for the man in the street are as follows:
- Plans to give everyone in the UK a bank account – reaching 1m people who are currently not entitled
- There will be a 1p increase in National Insurance contributions but “it will not affect those earning less than £20,000 a year”
- Outside of the already announced 50p tax rate for those earning over £150,000, no further income tax announcements
- No rise in VAT or change in CGT
- Inheritance tax has been frozen for four years
- Increase in child tax credit by £4 for 1 and 2 year olds from 2012
- Pensioners income up this year
- Support for business via business rates – cut for a year from October, meaning a tax reduction for 500,000 small firms in England
- 3p increase on fuel to be staggered – 1p in January, 1p in October and 1p in January 2011
- There will be a 2% increase in alcohol duty – but a 10% increase for duty on cider
- Tobacco duty will increase by 1% immediately and 2% in the years after
Fags, booze and petrol up then, and the rest is money juggling dressed up as investment for growth.
