Brace for Impact

Looks like a disproportionate amount of the burden *might* fall on SMEs, when we could (and should) be seeing the chancellor go after tax dodging big business, bringing CGT back in line with income tax, and/or looking at taxing unrealised gains.

We’re still in the position where we have a sluggish and unproductive economy in no small part due to uncontested, exorbitant wealth extraction (rather than reinvestment) by the top 10%, and a lack of spending power amongst the bottom 50%; and until there’s a significant rebalancing which addresses those facts, we’re just titting around really.

There’s still apparently a great fear of taxing multinationals and high wealth individuals, because if we deign do so, “they won’t invest anymore”. Reality check: they aren’t investing now.

I've had my own business since 1995.

Successive budgets have made little difference over those 30 years in the grand scheme of things.

The real elephant in the room is Brexit, which is funking disaster.

comment by rosso says the time has come to unlock the unlimited Pote-ntial of the Fernçalvenoo triumvirate (U17054)
posted 2 hours, 6 minutes ago
Looks like a disproportionate amount of the burden *might* fall on SMEs, when we could (and should) be seeing the chancellor go after tax dodging big business, bringing CGT back in line with income tax, and/or looking at taxing unrealised gains.

We’re still in the position where we have a sluggish and unproductive economy in no small part due to uncontested, exorbitant wealth extraction (rather than reinvestment) by the top 10%, and a lack of spending power amongst the bottom 50%; and until there’s a significant rebalancing which addresses those facts, we’re just titting around really.

There’s still apparently a great fear of taxing multinationals and high wealth individuals, because if we deign do so, “they won’t invest anymore”. Reality check: they aren’t investing now.
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Excellent post.

They didn't touch pensions as far as I can tell without having watched the budget and relied on the BBC coverage. Good move.

2nd biggest tax raising budget in history apparently.

From my first viewing, without lookin⁹g at details, it looks like lots more taxes, borrowing and spending. This combination will likely result in higher inflation and stiffle growth as employers and employees are hit.

I do not see how their measures are meant to stabilise the economy. They've attacked the very core of it while borrowing hugely.

comment by Devonshirespur (U6316)
posted 33 seconds ago
2nd biggest tax raising budget in history apparently.

From my first viewing, without lookin⁹g at details, it looks like lots more taxes, borrowing and spending. This combination will likely result in higher inflation and stiffle growth as employers and employees are hit.

I do not see how their measures are meant to stabilise the economy. They've attacked the very core of it while borrowing hugely.
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We weren’t seeing projections for strong jobs growth and it’s not like we have high unemployment, so I wouldn’t worry too much about the employers’ NI rise impacting jobs provided it doesn’t put SMEs under.

£100bn of additional spending on infrastructure will significantly boost growth (as well as creating employment opportunities anyway), as will increased real wages.

Measures like the CGT increase, if the revenue is spent wisely, are going to take large amounts of unproductive capital and get it circulating round the economy, which will help.

A big question is how well the govt (with the various tools at its disposal) can plug the gaps the UK private sector has been reluctant/unwilling to fill - basic research, R&D, product development, marketisation, knowledge sharing, etc. Hopefully the incubator programmes and the likes of GB Energy will help with that.

Their big investment plans will take years to come to fruition.

They've done nothing for the here and now other than hit businesses with taxes and I don't think you can talk that down as nothing to worry about when it takes 18bn out of businesses. That is effectively 18bn not being invested by them, per year. That will hit growth, it will hit wage growth.

How is this stabilising the economy. It seems aimed at long term investment and funding immediate public spending.

Labour pro business

comment by Devonshirespur (U6316)
posted 42 minutes ago
Their big investment plans will take years to come to fruition.

They've done nothing for the here and now other than hit businesses with taxes and I don't think you can talk that down as nothing to worry about when it takes 18bn out of businesses. That is effectively 18bn not being invested by them, per year. That will hit growth, it will hit wage growth.

How is this stabilising the economy. It seems aimed at long term investment and funding immediate public spending.

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It will hit wage growth, particularly for second quartile earners I’d expect, over the next two to three years; it won’t really hit investment.

British business doesn’t reinvest its profits (that isn’t opinion, by the way; that’s what the data says). And that’s the reason why we have dogshiiiiit productivity, have next to zero R&D going on, and are years behind the curve in most future tech industries.

It’s one of the new government’s biggest challenges, and I’m pleased to see they’ve recognised that the public sector is going to have to step in to fill the gaps where a short-termist private sector has spectacularly failed.

The typical British successful' Business scenario, is not to reinvest, but to sell it (usually to a foreign entity).

If that involves a knighthood en-route, then bingo.

Compare that with (say) Germany, where a lot of the really big manufacturers are still family owned.