The profession must now point its radar in the direction of Philip Hammond, the newly appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer. Goodbye Mr Osborne…
He has already confirmed that there will be no emergency budget, phew, and he will make an Autumn Statement in the usual way later this year.
Accordingly, the changes enacted in the Finance Bill will proceed and eventually we will have our Finance Act 2016.
So, business as usual?
Well, Theresa May has indicated that George Osborne’s commitment of reaching a budget surplus in four years’ time is to be scrapped. This is a likely indication that the austerity associated with Mr Osborne is to be relaxed.
Mr Hammond told ITV News: “Markets do need signals of reassurance, they need to know that we will do whatever is necessary to keep the economy on track.”
Mark Carney’s announcement today, that the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee is leaving interest rates unchanged, will be a further boost to the value of stocks and our exchange rate. No change there. Minutes of today’s meeting clarify:
“In the absence of a further worsening in the trade-off between supporting growth and returning inflation to target on a sustainable basis, most members of the Committee expect monetary policy to be loosened in August, the precise size and nature of any stimulatory measures will be determined during the August forecast and Inflation Report round.”
For now, practitioners will need to deal with the fiscal regime created by Mr Osborne as we wait to see how Mr Hammond will reshape this landscape later in the year. Let us hope, that at the very least, he manages to push forward with tax simplification.
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