The British government is considering slapping a “supertax” on bankers’ bonuses amid fears of a lavish season for senior staff despite P>
Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling is mulling the levy on bankers handed bonuses above a certain level, and it could be included in his latest taxation and spending plans to be revealed tomorrow, the Financial Times said.
Staff at British banks as well as the British arms of overseas-based firms, such as Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank, could be hit with the new 12-month tax, the BBC said, citing unnamed Treasury officials.
APPEAL
The tax could appeal to voters in recession-hit Britain amid anger over huge bailouts to struggling banks following the global downturn, and a row over bonuses planned for staff at state-rescued Royal Bank of Scotland.
Darling delivers his pre-budget report against the backdrop of national debt and a record recession ahead of a general election by the middle of next year that his ruling Labour Party is tipped to lose.
Darling is expected to focus tomorrow on fixing Britain’s public finances, which have buckled under the weight of the bailouts of the banks and a sharp economic downturn that has slashed taxation revenues.
Ahead of the report, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will set out plans for cutting public spending by £12 billion (US$19.68 billion) over four years, as he details the government’s plans to slash the massive budget deficit.
Brown was expected to outline the “efficiency savings” in a speech yesterday.
“The proposals we are setting out in this plan — which is just one element of our efforts to reduce the deficit — will go further than we have ever gone before in streamlining central government,” Brown was expected to say.
‘RANSOM’
Darling on Sunday told BBC TV that the government would not be “held to ransom” over bonuses but appeared to play down the prospect of new taxes on the financial sector.
“We are not going to be held to ransom by people who believe you can pay extraordinarily high bonuses without regard to what’s going on,” he said.
“With all matters of tax — whether it’s individuals, whether it’s companies — you’ve got to be fair, you’ve got to be reasonable,” he said.
“You’ve also got to have an eye on what the long-term result of all this might be,” he said.
The move comes as RBS, 70 percent state-owned, reportedly wants to pay £1.5 billion in bonuses to banking staff, and the board has threatened to quit if the government blocks the move.
Some observers blame the bonus culture of the world’s two pre-eminent financial sectors — the City of London and Wall Street — for encouraging excessive risk-taking, which helped to tip the global economy into chaos.
Taiwan’s Lee Chia-hao (李佳豪) on Sunday won a silver medal at the All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham, England, a career best. Lee, 25, took silver in the final of the men’s singles against world No. 1 Shi Yuqi (石宇奇) of China, who won 21-17, 21-19 in a tough match that lasted 51 minutes. After the match, the Taiwanese player, who ranks No. 22 in the world, said it felt unreal to be challenging an opponent of Shi’s caliber. “I had to be in peak form, and constantly switch my rhythm and tactics in order to score points effectively,” he said. Lee got
‘CROWN JEWEL’: Washington ‘can delay and deter’ Chinese President Xi Jinping’s plans for Taiwan, but it is ‘a very delicate situation there,’ the secretary of state said US President Donald Trump is opposed to any change to Taiwan’s “status quo” by force or extortion and would maintain that policy, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Hugh Hewitt Show host on Wednesday. The US’ policy is to maintain Taiwan’s “status quo” and to oppose any changes in the situation by force or extortion, Rubio said. Hewitt asked Rubio about the significance of Trump earlier this month speaking with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) at the White House, a meeting that Hewitt described as a “big deal.” Asked whether the meeting was an indication of the
‘RELATIVELY STRONG LANGUAGE’: An expert said the state department has not softened its language on China and was ‘probably a little more Taiwan supportive’ China’s latest drills near Taiwan on Monday were “brazen and irresponsible threats,” a US Department of State spokesperson said on Tuesday, while reiterating Washington’s decades-long support of Taipei. “China cannot credibly claim to be a ‘force for stability in a turbulent world’ while issuing brazen and irresponsible threats toward Taiwan,” the unnamed spokesperson said in an e-mailed response to media queries. Washington’s enduring commitment to Taiwan will continue as it has for 45 years and the US “will continue to support Taiwan in the face of China’s military, economic, informational and diplomatic pressure campaign,” the e-mail said. “Alongside our international partners, we firmly
KAOHSIUNG CEREMONY: The contract chipmaker is planning to build 5 fabs in the southern city to gradually expand its 2-nanometer chip capacity Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, yesterday confirmed that it plans to hold a ceremony on March 31 to unveil a capacity expansion plan for its most advanced 2-nanometer chips in Kaohsiung, demonstrating its commitment to further investment at home. The ceremony is to be hosted by TSMC cochief operating officer Y.P. Chyn (秦永沛). It did not disclose whether Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) and high-ranking government officials would attend the ceremony. More details are to be released next week, it said. The chipmaker’s latest move came after its announcement earlier this month of an additional US$100 billion
RSS