Tax Deadline Put Back by Two Days
There will be no extra charges over self-assessment tax returns submitted online during the first two days of February, according to the HM Revenue and Customs. The official deadline was set on January 31 but due to a strike scheduled that day, there may be a last minute disruption, hence the extra two days. There are over two million people who are expected to file their returns through the website. There was a change in the process after an announcement that there might be leniency due to the strike. PCS, the public sector union, will hold a strike against the decision to have private companies execute some call trials in two call centres. “This strike could have caused thousands of people to incur fines, so I am pleased that HMRC has taken this common sense approach,” said David Gauke, exchequer secretary to the Treasury.
UK Government Debt Reaches £1 Trillion
The government debt of the UK has gone up to a record breaking £1 trillion from £883 billion from the past year. Even when this is the current figure, Chancellor George Osborne is still determined to attain his borrowing goal this financial year of £127 billion. The total for the year is at £103.3 billion. According to the Office for National Statistics, the government tax receipts have been given a boost by the bank levy. This was enforced on various financial institutions in order to recover some of the expenses during the economic crisis. There was a VAT increase this January – from 17.5 percent to 20 percent – which increased the tax take as well. The expenses of the central government declined by 0.9 percent as debt reduction plans have been implemented.
Wide Gap Between Economies in Cities Now Apparent
There has been a big difference in economic performances in various cities and towns in the United Kingdom according to a report presented by the Centre for Cities. In Cambridge and Hull, the number of people getting their Jobseeker’s Allowance has gone up to almost double the figure since the beginning of the year 2008, which is from 3.2 percent to 6.1 percent. In Rochdale, there are about six times as much as those people claiming their unemployed benefits in Cambridge. Cambridge has a rate of 5 percent, while Rochdale has 30.3 percent. According to the research group, the efforts of the private sector in trying to provide more jobs for the people were “playing out very differently across UK cities.” Doncaster, Hull and Newport have been described as towns and cities that have private sectors that are less active and less dynamic compared to others.
House Rent Declined by 0.8% Since November
Renting a home in England and in Wales has now gone down for another month this December, according to LSL Property Services. The average rent is now down by 0.8 percent compared to £711 per month during November. However, rental prices are higher by 4 percent compared to December 2010. One of the main reasons for this is having more people prioritize their Christmas expenses and became behind on their rental payments. LSL noted that there were about 10.7 percent of the rent paid in December was marked late or unpaid, which is higher than the recorded 9.3 percent in November. According to David Newnes who is the director of LSL, “The rental market was sheltered from the full impact of the seasonal lull by the strength of underlying tenant demand as many prospective renters took the opportunity to move in the run-up to Christmas at a time when the market is traditionally less competitive.”
