Budget favours stealth taxation

Rejoicing at the survival of the 5% tax-deferred withdrawal facility in the Budget masked a far more insidious failing: the 10% equity income tax credit will be abolished

With all eyes on the Gulf, the spin machine at Downing street must have thought this the perfect time to bury some bad budget news. So was NIC or VAT attacked? Was the sacrosanct income tax tinkered with? Did we see playing with corporation tax to fund the massive public spending programme? Or was there the US approach of massive tax cuts in the hope of avoiding recession. Well no. Gordon Brown did, well, precisely nothing. I don't know why anyone was surprised. Brown has always gone for a laissez faire approach on the big taxes. He has always favoured stealth taxation ' a tweak here, a ...