The wonderful thing about tiggers…

The Chancellor delivered his Spring Statement yesterday proclaiming that he felt full of bounce like Tigger due to the current position in the UK economy. Whilst there was no doubt much of that was political grandstanding, it was good to see the normally grey, Eeyore like, Chancellor carrying an air of optimism during his speech.

The Spring Statement is not the time for major tax announcements but in his back up notes available on HMRC’s website when he sat down, there were some interesting tax consultations announced. The digital economy and how to tax online income continues to vex many international governments and the Spring Statement signalled the government’s intention to do something about it. What happens remains to be seen but we could end up seeing some tax on income, if taxing the profits proves to be impossible.

Business investors will have been encouraged about the consultations announced into extending Entrepreneurs Relief for those who would have qualified until a further share issue diluted their shareholding. Further positive signs for Enterprise Investment Scheme investors with some suggestion of an extension to some of the tax reliefs associated with it.

Finally, the Chancellor announced some potential tax measures designed to cut the use of plastics and, importantly, announced potential measures to eliminate late payment of debt, a problem which blights the whole of the UK in certain sectors.

For more information on the Spring Statement, HMRC’s website contains all of the relevant consultations (www.hmrc.gov.uk) and your normal EQ contacts will be happy to discuss matters with you.

The wonderful thing about Philips, is Philips are wonderful things, their tops are made out of rubber, their bottoms are made out of springs. They’re bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, but the most wonderful thing about Philip is HE’S THE ONLY ONE!