August 18, 2019

Andrew Campbell 

Chancellor Sajid Javid of UK informed the Times in his first interview since becoming the chancellor that he was a "low tax guy," but he said it was essential "always be thinking about the lowest paid."

He further added that maximizing income “doesn’t mean that you have to have the highest tax rate possible.”

Labor claimed the suggestions put forward by Mr. Javid would make the UK even more unfair.

The chancellor announced that UK people would have to wait for the budget. “Taxes should be efficient,” he added. “Generally I want to see lower taxes, but at a level that is going to pay for the public services.”

Speaking to the program Radio 4's Today, Paul Johnson from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, , said: "All chancellors come in proposing simpler taxes; however, they always end up leaving with a longer and more complicated tax code than they started."

Mr. Javid said he was still considering whether modifications to the present long-term plan of the government to eliminate the deficit by the mid-2020s might be required.  He said that he wouldn't be doing his job if he wasn't thinking seriously," he said.

Mr. Johnson said the chancellor could use "extremely low interest rates" and start to "borrow more to pay for more infrastructure."

The Times also revealed that Mr. Javid was considering shifting the stamp duty burden from customers to vendors, meaning the tax would never be paid by first-time owners.

Stamp duty – a purchase tax on properties worth more than £ 125,000 paid in England and Northern Ireland – was abolished in 2017 for first-time purchasers spending up to £ 300,000 on a house.

Photo:Webshot.