Other measures
Support for private investment
The Government will provide a £5.5 billion capital package for developing the UK’s infrastructure, as well as support for long-term private investment in areas including new roads, science infrastructure, free schools and free academies.
Ultra-fast broadband
The Autumn Statement revealed details of the second wave of cities in the Government’s Urban Broadband Fund.
Ultra-fast broadband will now be expanded to the following 12 cities: Brighton and Hove, Cambridge, Coventry, Derby, Oxford, Portsmouth, Salford, York, Newport, Aberdeen, Perth and Derry/Londonderry.
General Anti-Abuse Rule
A new General Anti-Abuse Rule will be introduced from next year to provide a new deterrent to abusive avoidance schemes and strengthen HMRC’s means of tackling them.
Tax loopholes
HMRC recently announced that its activities to tackle non-compliance including avoidance, evasion and fraud will deliver almost £22 billion a year by 2014/15.
The Government will introduce the following five measures with immediate effect:
- Foreign bank levies – which are not allowable deductions for income tax or corporation tax purposes
- Tax mismatch schemes – which reduce corporation tax liability through asymmetric tax treatment of loans or derivatives
- Property return swaps – which convert capital losses into income losses
- Manufactured payments – where schemes involve stock lending arrangements
- Payments of patent royalties – relief for non-trade payments is to be abolished.
