Tag: business

Tax Cuts, Business Investment and Debt Reduction

Main Takeaways from the 2023 UK Autumn Statement

  • Main national insurance rate to be cut by 2%, from 12% to 10% for 27 million people
  • Full expensing of capital investment for businesses made permanent. Business investment to improve by £20bn per year according to estimates
  • State pensions to rise by 8.5% from April 2024
  • Welfare benefits grow in line with the September’s CPI figure of 6.7% instead of the rumoured, lower October figure

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Introduction to Forex News Trading

Tax Cuts, Debt Reduction and Massive Boost to UK Businesses

Last autumn, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt was brought in as damage limitation, now he has a tiny bit of wriggle room in his budget and has his sights set on growth. Now that inflation has been halved and stimulus/support packages have been phased out, the government has a minimal amount of headroom within the budget which many were anticipating would be utilized to ease the burden of taxes. They were right, well kind of.

The tax cuts weren’t applied to income tax but rather to the percentage of national income tax that will be applicable to 27 million people in the UK. This has now created an expectation that the prime minister’s calls for a drop in the basic tax rate will be the main event of the pre-general election budget in the spring.

Furthermore, businesses will be able to fully expense investment expenditure permanently. This is potentially going to attract around £20bn worth of investment per year. In addition, the UK government is committed to reducing the rate of government borrowing compared to the rate of economic growth – with OBR forecasts seeing debt as a percentage of GDP fall for the majority of the forecast period, approaching the low 90% level.

The OBR provided updates to its

Spain Alternative Lending Market Business and Investment Opportunities Databook 2023

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Spanish Alternative Lending Market

Spanish Alternative Lending Market

Spanish Alternative Lending Market

Dublin, Nov. 23, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The “Spain Alternative Lending Market Business and Investment Opportunities Databook – 75+ KPIs on Alternative Lending Market Size, By End User, By Finance Model, By Payment Instrument, By Loan Type and Demographics – Q2 2023 Update” report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com’s offering.

The alternative lending market in Spain is forecast to grow by 19.3% on an annual basis to reach US$ 2.47 billion in 2023.

Medium to long term growth story of alternative lending in Spain remains strong. Alternative lending adoption is expected to grow steadily over the forecast period, recording a CAGR of 11.0% during 2023-2027. The alternative lending market in Spain will increase from US$ 2.07 billion in 2022 to reach US$ 3.75 billion by 2027.

Embark on a detailed exploration of the alternative lending market with our latest report, dissecting key economic indicators to provide a holistic view of this dynamic landscape. Delve into the alternative lending market’s expansive horizons, from overall market size and forecasts to granular analyses of end-user segments, diverse finance models, and payment instrument intricacies.

This report helps in navigating the nuanced relationships between payment instruments and lending models, offering a detailed breakdown of transaction dynamics. Uncover the multifaceted nature of loans, from personalized B2C offerings like payroll advances to strategic B2B solutions like lines of credit. Complementing these insights, delve into consumer attitudes and behaviors, decoding the impact of age, income, and gender on financial choices.

This report provides a thorough knowledge of alternative lending market dynamics, market size and forecast with more than 75+ KPIs. KPIs in both value and volume terms help in getting an in-depth understanding of end market dynamics.

Report Highlights

  • Comprehensive Market Intelligence: This report offers a thorough scrutiny

Biden and Xi’s meeting sent an important signal for U.S. business in China

U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping at Filoli estate on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Woodside, California, on Nov. 15, 2023.

Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

BEIJING — U.S. President Joe Biden’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping last week has set a bottom line in the relationship which reduces uncertainty for businesses, analysts said.

Biden and Xi met for the first time in about a year in San Francisco on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference.

“I think there’s a lot of consensus coming out of this summit,” Wang Dong, executive director of the Institute for Global Cooperation and Understanding at Peking University, told reporters Tuesday.

“What you get from this summit is a very clear signal the two countries, they are committed to what we can call recouple, in a way, on the basis of reciprocity and mutual respect,” he said. “I think this is very important for both countries and indeed for the global economy as well.”

In essence, the U.S. and China are working out what it means to cooperate where they can.

Ray Dalio on Xi dinner: A gathering of old friends and 'stepping back' from the risks of war

“I think for U.S. businesses the hope is that this kind of new tone can translate into a new normal for the economic relationship, where there’s a mutually beneficial relationship where China plays by the rules and the United States and China can get back to a more normal economic footing, have some of these tariffs and retaliations drop away,” said Jake Colvin, president of the Washington, D.C.-based National Foreign Trade Council.

He said he participated in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit in San Francisco last week.

In conversations with Xi, Biden did not budge on export controls, enacted out of national security concerns. But a White House readout said “the leaders affirmed the

Today’s news: Trending business stories for November 8, 2023

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Brexit has ‘chilled’ business investment, says Bank of England deputy governor | Bank of England

The outcome of the Brexit vote and years of political uncertainty it triggered has had a chilling impact on business investment in Britain, a deputy governor of the Bank of England has said.

Dave Ramsden, the Bank’s deputy governor for markets and banking, said the fallout from the 2016 referendum had “chilled” investment levels compared with other leading nations and contributed to a lower “speed limit” for the UK economy.

“It’s hard to conclude otherwise, that the decision to leave the EU – that may have had lots of goods reasons for it – but that it has chilled business investment,” he said.

Speaking to MPs on the Commons Treasury committee, his comments come as the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, prepares to use Wednesday’s autumn statement to focus on growing business investment in Britain.

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Hunt told company bosses at a conference held by the CBI lobby group on Monday that he planned to unveil “a whole range of measures designed to unlock business investment” as the cornerstone of his growth plans.

Britain has historically lagged behind other leading economies for growth in business investment, but has fallen further back in recent years after a period of political and economic instability amid the Brexit vote, Covid pandemic and repeated “flip-flopping” of government policy.

A key driver for economic growth, business investment was now only 6% higher in real terms than in the second quarter of 2016, when the Brexit referendum was held, Ramsden said. “That’s less than 1% a year. Over that time, US business investment has gone up by over 25%,” he said.

“You can see a break in the trend for UK business investment in 2016. It had been going up since the global financial crisis and then it flattened off from 2016 onwards.”

The Bank’s deputy governor said

Business groups welcome permanent UK tax break on capital investment

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The UK government’s decision to make permanent a big tax break for companies gives them the certainty to make productivity-boosting investments, said business groups welcoming the move in Wednesday’s Autumn Statement. 

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said the “full expensing” regime for capital investments by companies would be extended beyond the initial three-year period envisaged when he unveiled the measure in his March Budget. 

The change aims to boost the UK’s anaemic economic growth and productivity by encouraging businesses to invest in new plant and machinery. 

Hunt said it was “the largest business tax cut in modern British history” while the Office for Budget Responsibility forecast that making the policy permanent would increase business investment by about £3bn a year compared with the temporary measure.

The regime, expected to cost the exchequer about £10.9bn a year by 2028-29, allows companies to immediately deduct the full investment costs from their taxable profits rather than spreading them over multiple years. Companies can save up to 25p in tax for every £1 of capital investment. 

Extending full expensing was a key demand from several business groups ahead of the Autumn Statement, as well as companies including BT-owned Openreach, Siemens and Bosch. 

They had argued that companies often plan and make large investments over several years, meaning many businesses would not be able to include the temporary tax break when calculating whether to make investments.

The relief was introduced in spring partly to offset a rise in corporation tax from 19 to 25 per cent and the ending of the more generous pandemic era “super-deduction”, which had been introduced in 2021. 

Making the regime permanent “will be a boost to companies wanting to invest but who

The ‘breaking news’ is business as usual

The “breaking news” is business as usual

The media calls it “Breaking News,” when it is just business as usual. Another mass shooting carried out by a mentally disturbed person with easy access to an assault rifle. This is the sad state of our gun-obsessed society where it is not safe to go to the store, a movie, bowling, a restaurant or to accidentally knock on the wrong door to ask for directions.

The Republican Party has named a new Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson. He could not be a more far-right MAGA lunatic if he tried. He supports a ban on abortion from conception with no exceptions, and is against rights for LGBTQ+ people who have never done him harm and just want to live their lives. He voted against certifying the 2020 presidential election and, in fact, fought to overturn it, and has voted against aid to Ukraine, because the current Republican Party seeks to destroy democracy here and around the world. He believes our government should be run according to his religious beliefs.

Knowing all this, is it any surprise that his response to this latest atrocity is that we should all pray that it ends. Once again worthless thoughts and prayers. Republicans won’t even discuss sensible gun control because they might lose the votes of the gun fanatics. The very babies that they don’t want aborted grow up to be children who go to school where they are slaughtered. But then, children can’t vote so they must be expendable. If it’s not the votes, then it’s the fact that they fear being killed by the terrorists in their base whom they incite with their rhetoric.

Mike Johnson is right; we should all pray that this senseless killing stops. But, more than that, I will pray

UK’s Hunt makes business investment tax break permanent in growth quest

  • UK business investment has lagged since Brexit
  • “Largest business tax cut” in modern history-Hunt
  • Tax break costs 11 bln stg a year
  • OBR forecasts 3 bln stg a year investment boost

LONDON, Nov 22 (Reuters) – Britain’s finance minister Jeremy Hunt made a tax break for business investment permanent on Wednesday, aiming to kickstart growth in the country’s sluggish economy.

Britain has suffered from weak business investment since the Brexit vote in 2016, and economists blame the lack of corporate investment for the country’s anaemic growth rate in recent years.

Hunt hopes that by making permanent the tax break known as “full expensing”, companies will spend more on new kit and technology, lifting productivity.

“I will today make full expensing permanent. This is the largest business tax cut in modern British history,” Hunt said in his Autumn Statement on Wednesday.

The move would boost annual business investment by around 3 billion pounds ($3.7 billion) a year, forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said.

More investment would help close the productivity gap with other major economies, the finance minister said, helping drive growth and raise living standards.

BT (BT.L), a beneficiary of the tax break as it is investing billions in building a new fibre network, welcomed Hunt’s move.

“It gives businesses like ours long-term certainty as we plan and build the country’s digital infrastructure, and shifts the investment environment in Britain from good to great,” Chief Executive Philip Jansen said.

The opposition Labour party, which is ahead of Hunt’s Conservatives in the polls before an election expected in 2024, said it supported the move.

BREXIT DRAG

Full expensing

Tricky politics on menu for China’s Xi at US business dinner

By Michael Martina

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Top business leaders in the United States are expected to dine with Chinese President Xi Jinping in San Francisco on Wednesday as he seeks to court American companies and counter his country’s recent struggles to entice foreign investment.

The dinner on the margins of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum will follow a day of talks between Xi and U.S. President Joe Biden, aimed at stabilizing fraught ties between the world’s two largest economies.

For American businesses, it will be a chance to hear directly from China’s leader as they search for ways to navigate China’s economic slowdown, a U.S. push to “de-risk” some American supply chains away from China, and uncertainty caused by expanding Chinese security rules.

“The purpose of the dinner is to foster better communication,” one source close to the organizers told Reuters, declining to say who would speak while confirming representatives from both the Chinese and U.S. governments would share the podium.

But the event, yet to be formally announced by hosts U.S.-China Business Council (USCBC) and the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations (NCUSCR), also presents uneasy optics.

According to event notifications seen by Reuters, some U.S. firms will pay tens of thousands of dollars to hear a “Chinese state leader” from a government that Washington has accused of genocide against Muslim Uyghurs. China has vigorously denied the accusations.

The USCBC and NCUSCR both declined to comment on the planned dinner. China’s embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.

Xi, who is widely expected to deliver a speech, will be eager to convince U.S. industry that China is still open for business after recording its first quarterly deficit in foreign direct investment.

Even as China this year cast off COVID-19 pandemic controls that effectively shut

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Here are Wednesday’s top 3 performers on the TSX

Tilray Brands Inc. had a strong run-up in August through to September on hopes the United States would loosen restrictions on cannabis.
Tilray Brands