Osborne plans biggest tax avoidance clampdown since 2004

The Chancellor will use Wednesday's Budget to announce the biggest clampdown on tax avoidance since 2004, raising twice as much as the £500m a year predicted when the initiative was launched last December.

In what some are dubbing a "Robin Hood" Budget, George Osborne will close tax loopholes used by high net worth individuals and introduce a "Learjet levy" on people using private jets, the Financial Times reports. The £1bn in extra taxes will fund small sweeteners to motorists, low earners and holidaymakers. Osborne will use the extra taxes from the Britain's richest to help ease the pressure faced by families on low and middle incomes, mainly through raising the income tax threshold and by cutting planned fuel duty rises. The Chancellor will describe the measures as evidence of "fa...