Britain’s coalition government will announce in its 2011 budget plans to claw back an extra 500 million pounds per year from tax avoidance, a government source said on Monday. A 1 billion pound annual tax crackdown package will be set out on Wednesday, increasing the scope of — and doubling the haul from — measures set out in December which targeted the areas of company remuneration, currency plays in accounting and value added sales tax.”We will be looking hard at tax avoidance,” the source said.The government will also announce an intention to introduce air passenger duty on private jets, bringing charges on those flights into line with commercial air journeys, the source said.
That move is expected to yield annual revenues for the Treasury in the low tens of millions of pounds.Treasury ministers have said protecting tax revenues will play a crucial part in bringing down Britain’s record budget deficit and also in keeping the public purse on a sustainable course in the future.Chancellor George Osborne is expected to stick to his austerity plan to slay the bulk of a deficit running close to 10 percent of national output by the time of the next election in 2015, leaving little room to use fiscal policy to bolster the economic recovery.However, the budget is expected to exempt more low-paid workers from income tax, fund training for the young unemployed, axe a planned rise in air passenger duty and also offer some help for motorists struggling with high petrol prices – Reuters
