Osborne looks at scrapping 50p rate in 2013

The Office for Budget Responsibility said it had assumed £2bn of tax revenues for the 2009-10 tax year would not be collected in 2010-11. It believes companies had paid bonuses just before the 50p rate was introduced and business owners paid themselves large dividends to avoid the tax, the Financial Times reports. Osborne's team insist there is no timetable for scrapping the 50p rate but all the political signals from the Treasury and senior coalition figures suggest that top earners have just two more years to endure the "temporary" levy. The chancellor said in his Budget that it ...