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Over the past couple of weeks the sky has been full of tax kites being flown by off-the-record Treasury briefers. I’ve not yet seen anybody suggesting the return of the window tax but otherwise almost every conceivable tax has been mentioned at least once. If all of the ideas which have been floated were actually implemented, Jeremy Hunt’s speech on 17 November would be longer than even Gladstone’s 1853 four and three-quarter hour marathon and the ensuing Finance Act would be longer that the three-volume Victorian novels that he turned to for light relief after reading Homer in the original Greek.
Of course most of these ideas will never see the light of day. Partly they are there to test out what the reaction of the public and, more importantly, the markets would be to some of the more radical proposals. But they also create something of a smokescreen to keep us guessing about exactly what the chancellor will say.
Benjamin Franklin, who had considerable experience of flying real kites, famously said that nothing was certain except death and taxes (unlike most well-known quotes there is documentary evidence to prove he said it). To that can be added that it is also certain the chancellor will still want to pull a rabbit out of a hat towards the end of his speech. Let’s hope for his sake that it does not blow up in his face as spectacularly as the one unleashed by his predecessor only a few short weeks ago.
By the time you read this the kites will have landed and we will know what the fiscal landscape will look like. We will cover the more important measures in next week’s issue.
If you do one thing...
See the latest revision to HMRC’s guidance on disputes which can and cannot be settled via alternative dispute resolution (tinyurl.com/hmrcadrnov).
