Stuart Adam

At this online debate, an expert panel reflected on what the future holds for capital gains tax. Could CGT be a post-covid cash cow for the Treasury or would higher rates and smaller reliefs lead to lower investment and less revenue?

At this joint IFS/CIOT online debate, a panel of David Gauke, Chris Leslie, Stuart Adam and Jane McCormick looked back at the changes in taxation over the 2010s.

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) covers 80% of employees’ usual salaries, up to a cap of £2,500 a month, while they are furloughed. From August it will also provide support for employees who return from furlough but work reduced hours. This Briefing Note considers the implications of that change and how it might work.

"There aren’t many upsides to the current situation", write Stuart Adam and Helen Miller. "Using it as an opportunity to fix some bits of our tax system could be a silver lining."

On Tuesday (12 May 2020) the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, announced an extension to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), which covers 80% of employees’ usual salaries, up to a cap of £2,500 a month, while they are furloughed.

Council tax bands in Wales are based on property values in April 2003 – 17 years ago. That is more up to date than in England and Scotland, where they are based on values in April 1991 (almost 30 years ago!). But it is still enough time for the relative values of different properties to change significantly: for example, official estimates suggest that while average prices had doubled since 2003 across Wales as a whole by the end of 2019, those in Blaenau Gwent had risen 171% compared with just 77% in Wrexham.

The Chancellor has introduced workable and generous income protection schemes for most employees and self-employed people that lose work as a result of coronavirus. But there are some groups who have seen no increase in protection.

Today (26 March 2020) the Chancellor announced new, very generous support for the self-employed. Those who earn the majority of their income from self-employment and who had average profits of no more than £50,000 over the last three years will be eligible for a taxable grant equal to 80% of the average profits they reported across the three years from April 2016 to April 2019, up to a cap of £2,500 per month, if they report that their income has been negatively impacted as a result of coronavirus.

The self-employed are more exposed to the large falls in demand resulting from social distancing measures during the coronavirus pandemic and more likely to be living in poverty than employees.

This presentation was delivered as part of the IFS press briefing following the Spring Budget 2020.

This presentation was given by Stuart Adam as part of the "A look ahead to the March 2020 Budget" preview briefing.

The three main political parties offer voters starkly different choices on tax, writes Stuart Adam of the IFS.