The British government’s final budget before May’s general election contains perks for older voters and a “Google tax” on companies that shift profits overseas, newspapers said yesterday.
British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne’s budget, due to be announced on Wednesday, would end restrictions on the sale of annuities, allowing pensioners to swap regular retirement incomes for lump sums, the reports said.
“The chancellor will set out sweeping reforms to allow 5 million pensioners to trade in their savings for cash,” the Sunday Telegraph reported.
The Observer said the current tax penalties of up to 70 percent would be removed, describing it as “a highly populist move designed to woo older voters into the arms of the Tories.”
The move is an extension of reforms due to come into effect next month affecting people yet to retire, now extended to those who have existing annuities.
The Sun reported that the budget would include a 25 percent “Google tax on firms accused of diverting profits abroad to avoid tax,” a move that follows criticism of the tax arrangements of companies such as Amazon.com Inc, Facebook Inc and Google Inc.
Plans to reform inheritance tax to allow parents to pass their homes on to children tax-free, a move to build 45,000 houses and small cuts to the alcohol tax are also in the budget, the paper said.
The Sunday Telegraph said the budget also contained “a tax cut for working people on modest incomes” and “measures to speed up house-building.”
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