Author: Blake Anderson

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the UK tax myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.The Treasury could raise up to £1bn next year by taxing profits earned by private equity executives as income, according to an academic study that analysed tax records to estimate the likelihood of individual buyout managers leaving the country. The study by the Centre for the Analysis of Taxation — which is likely to be highly contested by the industry — estimated that taxing gains at 45 per cent would only amount to a 16 per cent reduction in the take-home pay…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.A water company co-founded by the treasurer of the Conservative party is in discussions to take a stake in Thames Water, which is looking to raise billions of pounds to avoid a potential renationalisation. Castle Water — which acquired Thames Water’s corporate customers from the utility in 2017 — is looking at contributing new equity to bolster the balance sheet of the UK’s largest water utility, according to four people familiar with the matter. Castle Water is looking to take a controlling stake,…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the UK tax myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.If the government doesn’t announce tax rises at next week’s Budget, I will eat my hat. If no one complains about it, I will scoff my scarf. And if Labour announces a tax reform universally supported by wonks, I will gobble my gloves. When asked about council tax revaluation during the election campaign in June, the party said that it would be putting its political energy elsewhere. Why won’t the nerds prevail?It’s not because of the technical difficulty, or because the status…

Mike Levitt spent years operating on temporary event permits for his nightclub Ormside Projects in an industrial area of Bermondsey, south London, before he was finally granted a licence by Southwark council in 2019. The only issue was that his license stated music had to be turned off by 11.30pm on Fridays and Saturdays — a tough ask for a dance club. It took three more years and a complicated appeal process to receive permission to stay open until 6.30am. “As a late-night venue, it feels as if you have to prove you’re culturally important to justify a licence,” Levitt said.…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.UK savers are rushing to open tax-free cash individual savings accounts (Isas), in a sign of investor concerns about Labour’s first Budget next week. New data from investment group Hargreaves Lansdown revealed gross new business across the platform’s cash Isa accounts hit a record high in September. “There has been a wave of activity from our savers, as the Budget focuses the attention of clients to reassess their portfolio,” Hargreaves said. “New accounts remain elevated in October as we approach the Budget.”Investor…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Consumer confidence in Britain has fallen to its lowest this year as households and businesses “hold their breath” for tax rises in next week’s Budget.The GfK consumer confidence index — a measure of how people view their personal finances and broader economic prospects — fell to minus 21 in October, according to data published by the research company on Friday. Consumer confidence is an indication of how likely households are to spend income on goods and services.The index has not been lower…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Sir Keir Starmer said on Thursday that anyone who owns shares and rental property is not a “working person”, as his chancellor Rachel Reeves prepares to unveil a Budget that will feature numerous tax increases.The prime minister promised in Labour’s election manifesto he would “not increase taxes on working people”, ruling out rises in income tax, national insurance or value added tax. Starmer is coming under increasing scrutiny about what he means by the phrase “working people” given the October 30 Budget is…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.New claims to UK employment tribunals stemming from the government’s sweeping upgrade of workers’ rights will pile pressure on a system that is already close to breaking point, said Labour MPs and lawyers.While the package of reforms amounts to the most radical shake-up of UK labour rights in a generation, businesses and unions say it will fail unless the rules are enforced and workers have a realistic route to seek redress.“Making work fairer requires fixing our broken labour market institutions as well…

MainFT:Rachel Reeves has confirmed she will change the UK’s fiscal rules in her Budget next week as she seeks to fund about £20bn a year of extra investment with increased borrowing…Reeves is set to adopt a gauge called “public sector net financial liabilities” (PSNFL), according to people briefed on Budget discussions.The gauge is a broader measure of the public balance sheet that includes financial assets such as student loans.The change would give Reeves space to borrow an additional £50bn a year by the end of the decade and still have debt falling, under the Treasury’s March forecasts.The £50bn figure is…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Rachel Reeves has confirmed she will change the UK’s fiscal rules in her Budget next week as she seeks to fund about £20bn a year of extra investment with increased borrowing.Writing in the Financial Times, the UK chancellor said her “investment rule” would ensure Britain avoided “the falls in public sector investment that were planned under the last government”.Under plans drawn up by the Conservatives, public sector net investment had been due to fall from its current 2.4 per cent of GDP…