The Register (always a good read and worth bookmarking) reports on President Sarkozys’ “idea” to tax the search engines. He does have a habit of delivering on his thoughts, so lets wait and see.
Here in the UK, with a PM who apparently does not even own a mobile phone (he would only throw it at someone) and has a civil servant to do his Twitter posts, we cannot expect such forward thinking ways to reduce our debt mountain (if only it were a rock salt mountain….).
So, whoever wins the election in March, April or May this year, they are going to have to make some tough choices. These will involve increasing taxes and making cuts in spending, one or the other is not enough, it has got to be both.
One of the worries we have, as far as business insurance is concerned, is that if it is a Labour victory (don’t discount it, however scary it may seem) then they will look to increase taxes disproportionately.
Commercial, liability and professional indemnity insurance is subject to insurance premium tax. The current rate is 5%, we charge this on every premium. The insurers collect it and pass it on to the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
The most recent years figures are 06/07 when IPT contributed £2.3 billion to UK plc. Our concern is that as businesses start to recover from the worst recession in living memory, a new labour government will look to increase IPT.
Rather than out French cousins who are looking to tax companies that are not paying tax on revenue earned in France, the UK tends to just go back to the tried and tested method of hammering businesses.
Let us hope, whoever wins (although we already know, nod, nod, wink, wink) that they are a bit more creative in where they look to increase the revenue.