Hammond’s £14.9bn tax boost
A BUMPER tax haul for January gave Philip Hammond the biggest budget surplus ever recorded last month and handing him a boost just in time for the Spring statement.
The Chancellor is £14.9bn in the black for the month, according to official statistics, smashing the £10bn surplus predicted by economists as the healthy jobs market brought in extra income tax revenue.
The amount of income tax revenue for January, well above the £31.1bn raised in the same month a year ago
The strong numbers, boosted largely by income tax receipts, defied fears that by the end of March the public finances would be £5bn worse than forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) in October’s budget.
It also hands the Chancellor a windfall if he wants to go on a spending spree. Borrowing for the financial year to date stands at £21.2bn, a fall of £18.5bn on the same period of last year to the lowest level in 17 years.
Could this herald the demise of the foodbank? What will he do with the unexpected surplus? Use it to ease into a ‘no deal’ Brexit gets my vote.
BTW it demonstrates how doom mongering experts (OBR) got it wrong. Again.
Old sayings with a theme 2 ( continuing *nanna8*'s thread)