Firstly to Australia. Australia’s House of Representatives has narrowly voted in favour of the Clean Energy Bill. The Bill was passed by 74 votes to 72. The tax will be introduced on 1 July next year. The Australian Government plans to tax the carbon pollution caused by the burning of fossil fuels including coal and petroleum. The closeness of the vote and George Osborne’s comments at his party conference show how far the carbon tax debate has still to run.
Rafael Nadal has defended his decision not to compete next year at the traditional pre-Wimbledon warm up at Queens. It was also recently reported that Usain Bolt is not going to compete in the UK before the London Olympics. They each claim that if they compete they would be out of pocket due to UK tax rules. Under UK tax rules foreign sports stars are taxed on a proportion of their entire global income rather than the just the money they earn in the UK.
The UK Government shows no sign of changing these rules although it is worth remembering that a concession was made for the 2010 Champuons League final at Wembley. The concession, announced in the 2010 budget was a key condition laid down by UEFA for staging the final. A similar concession is in place for next year’s Olympics. What though of the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow?
More bad publicity for HMRC. Dave Hartnett, permanent secretary for tax at HMRC is facing demands to quit after being accused of lying over a deal that spared Goldman Sachs a multimillion pound tax bill for its bankers’ bonuses. The article from the Independent can be found here.
The most interesting fiscal powers announcement this week comes from Wales. The Secretary of State for Wales, Cheryl Gillian has announced the composition of a commission to assess the way that Wales is funded. This could result in the Welsh Assembly being granted borrowing and tax raising powers. The Commission will be led by Paul Silk, a former clerk to the Welsh Assembly. The fact that I have mentioned Wales gives me the chance to wish them all the best tomorrow.
The announcement that BP is to to go ahead with a £4.5bn project off Shetland re-ignited the debate over the UK Government’s recent decision to raise the supplementary tax on North Sea oil production from 20% to 32%. Claim and counterclaim over how much oil is left or whose oil this is will no doubt continue in the run up to the independence referendum. The amount of coverage that this announcement received shows how important the oil industry is to the UK economy and in particular the tax take for the UK Treasury.
And finally, a little bit of good news from Europe. The European Commission has published a report showing that EU member states’ tax revenues are rising again after a marked fall in 2008 and 2009.
Have a good weekend.
