Public sector finances are looking unexpectedly rosy following better-than-expected tax receipts. As the FT reports…
“Jeremy Hunt has received an unexpected £30bn windfall in the public finances ahead of his March Budget, giving the chancellor scope to provide extra support for energy bills, keep fuel taxes down and potentially solve public sector strikes.”
As Pound Sterling Live reports it…
“Also driving the surplus was a bump in self-assessed income tax receipts were up 18.4% on the same time last year, raking in £21.9BN for the Treasury in January 2023, which was the highest January figure since monthly records began in April 1999.
Pay As You Earn (PAYE) receipts were up 10.9% and corporation tax receipts were up 16.7% year-on-year.
Although the Treasury will welcome the boost to tax revenues it was also the smaller-than-expected expenditure on the government’s Energy Price Guarantee that did much of the heavy lifting.”
All of this will be useful to know for anyone campaigning about the whole ‘freelance social contract’ as it seems to be, in many respects, the worst deal anywhere in Europe (with the possible exceptions of Ireland and Bulgaria).