New 50% tax rate comes into force for top earners
Wednesday, 02 December 2009 14:56
A new 50% tax rate for top earners has come into force at the start of the financial year.
The new rate will affect the 300,000 highest earners in the UK, out of the 29 million people who pay income tax.
It will be levied on taxable incomes greater than £150,000 a year and aims to raise an extra £2.4bn by next year.
The 600,000 people who earn more than £100,000 a year will have their personal tax allowance eroded too, raising £1.5bn for the government.
Together with increased tax on pension contributions, which starts next year, the UK's top…
Budget 2010 Q&A: How it affects you
Saturday, 03 April 2010 16:59
The Chancellor, Alistair Darling, has delivered his Budget for 2010.
What is in it for you?
Home buyers
Stamp duty on properties worth up to £250,000 will be suspended for the next two tax years, but only if you are a first-time buyer.
But this is not an outright tax give-away. A new higher rate of stamp duty on land will come in at 5% on properties worth more than £1m, though from 2011.
If you have lost your job and are struggling with your mortgage repayments, the Support for Mortgage Interest scheme will continue at its higher rate for…
Half of calls to HM Revenue and Customs 'not answered'
Saturday, 03 April 2010 16:59
More than 40% of calls to HM Revenue and Customs last year were not answered despite a drive to get taxpayers to use the telephone, a report has found.
Of the 100 million calls to the main HMRC helplines from 2008 to 2009, 40 million did not get through, parliament's spending watchdog found.
The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) condemned the taxman's call-handling operation as "poor".
Revenue and Customs said that, by next year, it aimed to answer 90% of calls.
The government will formally respond to the report in due course, it added.
However the Public Accounts…