Budget 2007

Gordon Brown, the longest serving Chancellor of the Exchequer in 200 years, presented his eleventh – and probably final – Budget on 21st March.

Mr Brown has been quoted as saying that there are two types of Chancellor: those who fail and those who get out in time. It would appear that he will fall into the second category. Over the last ten years he has maintained economic stability (with 58 successive quarters of economic growth) and overseen a period of low inflation and low interest rates. The amount of income tax, inheritance tax and capital gains taxed raised has doubled and the amount of stamp duty and stamp duty land tax has tripled. The tax system has also become far more complex, the volume of tax legislation having doubled in a decade.

The introduction to the Budget Report says that “The Government’s economic objective is to build a strong economy and a fair society where there is opportunity and security for all.” It is hard to reconcile this statement with some of the Budget measures, which appear to stand on their head the principles that inspired Robin Hood. The 2007 Budget has redistributed tax benefits from smaller businesses to larger businesses and from less well off individuals to the better off.

The main changes are described in our two page Budget Stop Press which can be downloaded here.

Click here for Tax Tables

Budget Archive