Chancellor in bid to stop UK exodus
CHANCELLOR Alistair Darling is set to allow some tax concessions in a bid to prevent a business exodus from the UK.
Mr Darling is to use a speech to the CBI tomorrow to soothe the concerns of multinational companies alarmed by potential taxes on intellectual property rights held offshore, a report yesterday said.
The proposals on intellectual property rights were buried in a discussion document on exempting foreign dividends last year.
Mr Darling’s speech in London will attempt to placate the business community and insist any changes to the tax system were not intended to claw any more revenues from business.
The furore over intellectual property rights is the latest in a stormy sequence of tax rows for Mr Darling.
The Chancellor was forced into a partial climbdown over his changes to capital gains tax – which replaced a sliding scale with an 18% flat rate – by introducing an ‘entrepreneur’s relief’ 10% rate on the first £1m in gains in January.
Last week, Mr Darling announced plans to spend £2.7bn compensating those who lost out as a result of the abolition of the 10p income tax rate– giving all basic rate taxpayers a handout in the process – as voters vented their fury on the Government in local elections earlier this month.
