Like flowers blooming after a desert rain, the past few days have seen a rush to publish wish-lists ahead of the Budget due on Wednesday.
Unfortunatly for most, chancellor Gordon Brown is increasingly in a bind between the Blair government’s commitment to public spending and the Treasury’s own rules on borrowing. There is, therefore, considerable betting on which new taxes the chancellor might introduce to pay for the increasing largesse. An easy target is rising house prices. One of the latest rumours is a new stamp duty band will be introduced at a level of 2%, neatly splitting the jump from 1% to 3%, which is increasingly hitting property owners in the Southeast. a 2% rate would double the revenue’s income from sa...
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