.png)
.png)
Our press date doesn’t always tie in with the Budget speech so I am writing this before the chancellor has risen to his feet – indeed digital subscribers might well be reading this column during the more boring bits of the speech. So there is no point in me giving my Budget predictions now because they would be old news. I was going to use the old saying – yesterday’s news becomes today’s fish and chip paper, but that will probably mean nothing to our younger readers.
Still I don’t feel too disappointed by missing out on last-minute predictions. Over the years I must have given dozens of predictions on fiscal events. I’ve not kept a score but my success rate would probably not be very high. But I reckon that I wouldn’t be alone in this. Often ‘predictions’ turn out to be things which we already know about or clichés which come round every year. I can’t remember the number of times I have predicted the restriction of tax relief for pension contributions or reform of capital gains tax. On the basis that a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day I suppose that one day these things will happen and I will be vindicated.
Of course, I write this with my tongue firmly in my cheek. Anything which adds to the discussion of tax is to be welcomed and I wouldn’t want it any other way. So keep those predictions coming.
And speaking of clocks: perhaps one day somebody will correctly predict the return of the tax on clocks and watches introduced in 1797 and abolished, as a complete failure, the following year – perhaps it’s time (apologies for the pun) for a revival!
If you do one thing...
Paper returns can now be used to report some UK property disposals for capital gains tax. See the advice from the Association of Taxation Technicians: tinyurl.com/attpapercgt.
