Gordon’s Pensions Get Out Of Jail Card Torn Up By CBI
Slippery Gordon Brown had his “get out of jail free card” ripped up yesterday, when documents released by the Confederation of British Industry showed that they never supported his tax raid on pensions, as he had previously claimed. The CBI released their 1997 budget submission to the chancellor, which is recounted below.
“It is widely thought that the Government might restrict, or even abolish, the tax credits attached to dividends. The CBI would oppose this measure.
“This change in isolation would raise money for Government at the expense of businesses and shareholders (taken together), cutting the funds available for investment. The move would cut the actuarial value of pension funds which would need to be compensated at least in the case of defined benefit schemes.
“This would require higher payments of dividends from the companies the funds own, or higher employer contributions. Far from leaving businesses with more retained profits … the move could have the opposite effect.”
The fall out from the disasterous tax grab by Gordon was made crystal clear by Mike Warburton of Grant Thornton accountants, who said: “The Chancellor’s tax raid will cost pension funds another £7 billion in 2007-08. From an actuarial point of view he removed between 10 per cent and 20 per cent of the value of pension funds at a stroke.”
