Two-thirds of millionaires left Britain to avoid 50p tax rate
In the 2009-10 tax year, more than 16,000 people declared an annual income of more than £1 million to HM Revenue and Customs.
This number fell to just 6,000 after Gordon Brown introduced the new 50p top rate of income tax shortly before the last general election.
The figures have been seized upon by the Conservatives to claim that increasing the highest rate of tax actually led to a loss in revenues for the Government.
It is believed that rich Britons moved abroad or took steps to avoid paying the new levy by reducing their taxable incomes.
Keep reading: Two-thirds of millionaires left Britain to avoid 50p tax rate
Companies Shelling Out Billions to Beat the 'Fiscal Cliff'
By Patti Domm
Companies are racing the clock to hand out billions in special dividends before year end—and some of them are taking on debt to do it.
The latest is Costco... which announced a $7-a-share payout to stockholders Wednesday and is issuing bonds to pay for the $3 billion dividend. (Read More: Costco to Pay Special Dividend)
Fearing a tripling of dividend tax rates next year, companies have found one-time payouts and early payments of quarterly dividends as a way to beat some of the impact of the "Fiscal Cliff."...
The dividend tax rate, now 15 percent, is set to expire Dec. 31, and ahead of that investors have been dumping dividend paying stocks, like utilities. But they’ve also been eyeing a whole other group that are or could be paying special one-time dividends.
The concern is that the dividend tax rate could revert to 39.6 percent for the highest tax bracket if Bush tax cuts are not extended for the wealthy, as proposed by President Barack Obama.
The new Affordable Care Act—or Obamacare—also includes a new 3.8 percent tax on dividends and other investment income for wealthy taxpayers, and that would take the dividend tax rate up to 43.4 percent. At the same time, capital gains taxes, now 15 percent, could rise to their former rate of 20 percent.
Full article: Companies Shelling Out Billions to Beat the 'Fiscal Cliff' US Business News Blog - CNBC.
U.S. bans BP from new government contracts after oil spill deal
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government banned BP Plc on Wednesday from new federal contracts over its "lack of business integrity" in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, possibly imperiling the company's role as a top U.S. offshore oil and gas producer and the No. 1 military fuel supplier.
The suspension, announced by the Environmental Protection Agency, comes on the heels of BP's November 15 agreement with the U.S. government to plead guilty to criminal misconduct in the Gulf of Mexico disaster, the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history. The British energy giant agreed to pay $4.5 billion in penalties, including a record $1.256 billion criminal fine.
Keep reading: U.S. bans BP from new government contracts after oil spill deal - Yahoo! News.
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