All posts tagged: tax

The plan to save European farming – POLITICO

The plan to save European farming – POLITICO

Published by Sam

On the other hand, this income-based program should not depend on whether farmers comply with additional environmental rules — meaning those that go beyond existing EU law, such as nitrate pollution or habitat protection rules. Instead, a separate set of payments should be distributed among farmers that use sustainable practices, and would be handled by both agricultural and environmental authorities. The participants also asked for an “annual substantial increase” in environmental support. Business as usual is no longer an option for European farmers. | Chrisophe Archambault/Getty Images 2. Sustainable food systems The next two elephants in the room were sustainable diets and meat consumption. The experts agreed that it was crucial to support ongoing reductions in the consumption of animal-based proteins — e.g. meat and dairy — in favor of plant-based alternatives.  They also called for a review of EU food labeling legislation and urged that food marketing to children be addressed, while advocating tax reductions and other social and fiscal incentives. “The sustainable choice needs to become the choice by default,” the report said. …

Harris ,000 small business startup tax deduction ahead of Trump debate

Harris $50,000 small business startup tax deduction ahead of Trump debate

Published by Sam

Democratic presidential nominee and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris delivers remarks at a campaign rally in Savannah, Georgia, U.S., August 29, 2024.  Elizabeth Frantz | Reuters Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday will unveil a new proposal to provide small businesses with a $50,000 tax deduction for startup expenses, ten times the current $5,000 allowable deduction, according to a Harris campaign official who was granted anonymity to share details of a proposal that is not yet public. Harris will roll out the new plan at a presidential campaign event in New Hampshire on Wednesday, part of her broader kick-off of the post-Labor Day two-month sprint to Election Day. Under the proposal, new small businesses could spread the deduction out over several years, or delay claiming the $50,000 tax deduction until the company turned a profit. The Internal Revenue Service has previously run into issues ensuring that its small business tax breaks end up in the right pockets, especially during the pandemic, when the agency flagged a spike in fraudulent claims. The Harris campaign did not …

Tax giveaways, rent caps and childcare: what the manifestos would mean for your finances | Money

Tax giveaways, rent caps and childcare: what the manifestos would mean for your finances | Money

Published by skeptic

The manifestos are out, and every party fighting for your vote in the general election has included promises that could have an impact on your personal finances. How much of your earnings you take home, what the state pension will be worth, and how easy it will be to get on the housing ladder are among the key policy battles. We’ve looked at the pledges in the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties’ manifestos on these and other key areas. Tax Conservatives They are offering another 2p off the main class 1 national insurance contributions (Nics) paid by workers, taking the rate to 6% by 2027, and the abolition of class 4 Nics paid by the self-employed. (This year the government cut class 1 Nics from 10% to 8%, while class 2 – also paid by the self-employed – was axed.) There will be no increase in income tax or VAT. Labour The party promises taxes will be “kept as low as possible” for “working people” (it does not define this group), adding that “we …

Kenya police use tear gas, water cannon as hundreds protest over tax hikes | Protests News

Kenya police use tear gas, water cannon as hundreds protest over tax hikes | Protests News

Published by Sam

Parliament debates controversial but watered-down finance bill that many fear will up cost of living. Police in Kenya have fired tear gas and used water cannon to disperse protesters gathering near parliament in the capital to demonstrate against planned tax hikes that many fear will worsen the cost-of-living crisis. Tense scenes played out in Nairobi on Thursday as hundreds took to the streets in opposition to a finance bill, which proposes introducing new taxes and levies that would increase the price of basic goods. The tax increases were projected to raise 346.7 billion shillings ($2.7bn), equivalent to 1.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), and reduce the budget deficit from 5.7 percent to 3.3 percent of GDP. The cash-strapped government of President William Ruto agreed to make concessions on Tuesday, watering down the bill after hundreds of mostly young protesters clashed with police. But the government will still go ahead with some tax increases and has defended the proposed hikes as necessary for filling its coffers and cutting reliance on external borrowing. Protesters have decided …

Brazil’s tax authority to summon foreign crypto exchanges for information

Brazil’s tax authority to summon foreign crypto exchanges for information

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BRASILIA : Brazil’s tax authority will soon call foreign crypto exchanges not based in the country to explain their operations and how they cooperate with local service providers, government officials told Reuters on Monday. The tax revenue service is expected to publish this week an ordinance summoning these companies for further information. Unlike exchanges formally established in Brazil, they are not obligated to report transactions conducted on their platforms. “It’s an area of concern for us to understand first how they operate here, whether there’s any illegality or not. We are also concerned about having information on Brazilian wealth subject to taxation here,” said Andrea Chaves, deputy secretary of inspection at the federal revenue service. Wagner Lima, risk management coordinator at the revenue service, said the government also aims to understand how these exchanges cooperate with service providers in the country to ensure they provide information as required by the tax revenue service under a 2019 regulation. Among the exchanges not based in Brazil but operating in the country and even having Portuguese-language websites are …

After Rishi Sunak’s D-day disaster Labour need not worry about Tory tax claims | Larry Elliott

After Rishi Sunak’s D-day disaster Labour need not worry about Tory tax claims | Larry Elliott

Published by skeptic

Any lingering doubts about the result of next month’s election have been dispelled by Rishi Sunak’s inexplicable decision to leave last week’s D-day commemorations early. Only the scale of the Tory defeat remains in question. Last week was supposed to be the start of the Conservative party’s fightback. The idea was to go hard on Labour’s tax and spending plans in the hope that it would make voters forget that they are poorer now than they were at the start of this parliament. The strategy got off to a decent start, mainly because it clearly rattled a Labour party still haunted by its traumatic defeat at the 1992 election. Want to know why Rachel Reeves is so obsessed with getting the national debt on a downward trend? Look no further than Neil Kinnock snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in one of the biggest poll shocks of modern times. Finding it hard to understand why Labour was so desperate to rubbish the claim that taxes would need to rise by £2,000 a household if …

Tax rises of £800 a year coming whoever wins UK election, thinktank finds | Economics

Tax rises of £800 a year coming whoever wins UK election, thinktank finds | Economics

Published by skeptic

Tax rises “hiding in plain sight” that will cost UK households an average of £800 a year are already on the way whoever wins the general election, a leading thinktank has warned. While the Conservatives and Labour argue about what levies the other would introduce in power, the Resolution Foundation has warned that already announced measures will increase the total tax take by about £23bn a year by 2028-29. Neither party has committed to axing the moves from recent budgets and autumn statements, which include the continuation of the six-year freeze to income tax and personal national insurance thresholds and next spring’s reversal of temporary cuts to business rates, fuel duty and stamp duty land tax. Freezing existing tax rates increases revenue for the Treasury, since inflation and resulting pay rises mean more people are pulled into the higher-rate tax band, a process known as fiscal drag. Income tax thresholds have been frozen since 2022 and are expected to remain so until April 2028. The sum the Treasury is raising from taxes is at a …

Both parties are in fantasy land – but Sunak’s tax attack on Labour is rich given what his government has cost voters | Politics News

Both parties are in fantasy land – but Sunak’s tax attack on Labour is rich given what his government has cost voters | Politics News

Published by Sam

Before we get on to any of the numbers – from Rishi Sunak’s claim about Labour raising taxes by £2,000 to the more outlandish numbers going around today – here’s the most important thing you have to know right now. The parties fighting this election have yet to publish their manifestos. They might come as soon as next week, but until those documents, with their shopping lists of confirmed policies, actually land, we are in a kind of policy no man’s land where each side is guessing (and sometimes plain making up stuff) about what the other side actually wants to implement if they win the election. Election latest:Starmer wins another TV debate poll And since all parties like to talk a lot about exciting new things they’d spend money on and not half as much about the taxes they’d raise to pay for all that stuff, it doesn’t take a mathematical whizz to realise that if you take them all quite literally then you can impute some pretty big “black holes” in their plans. …

The warring conmen at the heart of a €5bn carbon trading scam | Carbon tax

The warring conmen at the heart of a €5bn carbon trading scam | Carbon tax

Published by skeptic

A good scammer sees opportunity everywhere, including in their own downfall. In 2006, the police showed up at Gustav Daphne’s house in Beverly Hills. They had come once before, when a neighbour complained about his trash. Daphne happened to be swimming in his pool at the time, and because he is French, he came to the front door in a tiny little bathing suit. The police were appalled; they gave him a reprimand about storing his garbage more tidily and scurried away. This time was different. The cops came straight into the house. There were a dozen of them, wearing bulletproof vests. They took him outside in handcuffs and put him in a car. Maybe he was paranoid, having built a multimillion-dollar empire on fraud and deceit, nurturing connections with international criminal rings, but at first he thought he was being kidnapped. When he saw the jail, he was relieved. The feeling was short-lived. The jail was cleaner than those in Europe where he had been held before, but after a couple of hours he …

‘I love campaigning’: Angela Rayner on being back in action after being cleared in tax row | Angela Rayner

‘I love campaigning’: Angela Rayner on being back in action after being cleared in tax row | Angela Rayner

Published by skeptic

Angela Rayner has been described as a huge electoral asset by Labour’s campaign chief, but until this week she has been one the party was unable to fully deploy. For months, Labour’s deputy leader has faced questions about her historical living arrangements, with the police investigating claims by the Tory party that she may not have paid the right amount of tax. This week Greater Manchester police cleared her of any criminal wrongdoing, while the local council and HM Revenue and Customs both announced that they were taking no further action. Rayner is, finally, let loose on the campaign trail. “I’m going to [be] powering up my battlebus and going up and down the country making the case for a Labour government,” she says gleefully. “I love campaigning and getting out to speak to ordinary people and I really feel like this is a time where people are calling out for change.” Despite her enthusiasm, she admits the last few weeks have been tough. “It was very difficult personally, because I’ve never been in trouble …