Britain’s tax cut pivot might not be enough to quell market mayhem – CNBC

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LONDON — The U.K. government’s reversal on scrapping the top rate of income tax is down to political optics and will not reassure market skittishness over its economic plan, analysts told CNBC Monday.

The tax cut, which Prime Minister Liz Truss was defending just hours before, would have abolished a 45% rate paid on annual income over £150,000 ($166,770).

Paul Dales, chief U.K. economist at Capital Economics, said it would have a limited impact on revenue.

“Of the £44 billion net loosening in fiscal policy by 2026/27 the Chancellor announced in the mini-budget, the 45p tax cut accounted for just £2 billion. So it is more politics than economics,” he said by email.

That was reflected in the statement released by Finance Minister Kwasi Kwarteng, who said in a statement it had become a “distraction from our overriding mission to tackle the challenges facing our economy”; and Conservative Member of Parliament Grant Shapps, who said it “jarred for people in a way which was unsustainable.”

The U.K. Treasury had previously confirmed the tax cut would lead to an average £10,000 saving for 660,000 people.

Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown, agreed.

”The U-turn only accounts for a small part of the equation in terms of the planned tax cuts, and was clearly made to limit further political fall out,” she told CNBC, adding that markets are still factoring in a benchmark interest rate rise to at least 5.5% next year.

“It is still likely to mean people on the lowest incomes will pick up the bulk of the cost of the cuts, with the government refusing to rule out that benefits will be hit,” she said.

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/03/uks-tax-cut-pivot-down-to-politics-not-economy-analysts-say.html

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