Monday newspaper round-up: Johnson tax promise, Allied Minds, small businesses
The government has been taken to task by its own MPs for sending billions of pounds overseas to help build power plants that burn fossil fuels while claiming a climate victory on home soil. The environmental audit committee said the UK is sabotaging its climate credentials by paying out “unacceptably high” fossil fuel subsidies to developing nations, while claiming to lead world in tackling the climate crisis. It called on ministers to stop by 2021 using taxpayer funds to lock poorer nations into a fossil fuel future. – Guardian
Boris Johnson has promised to cut taxes for around 3 million higher earners by raising the 40p threshold from £50,000 to £80,000 if he becomes prime minister, in a move condemned by senior Labour figures. The Tory leadership hopeful used the Telegraph to make the case for the cut, saying, “We should be raising thresholds of income tax – so that we help the huge numbers that have been captured in the higher rate by fiscal drag.” – Guardian
Allied Minds has caved in to pressure from investors and scrapped its controversial long-term bonus scheme. The technology investor, based in Boston but listed on the London Stock Exchange, said it had cancelled awards that were due to be issued last month, and would bar staff from racking up payouts from the scheme in the future. – Telegraph
Sir John Timpson, one of Britain's top retailers, has accused Amazon of "predatory trading" and warned the US e-commerce giant is on track to destroy Britain's retail industry. "It's taken them 24 years to get to this point. In another 24-25 years you will not be able to trade with anyone else,” said Sir John, whose family controls a chain of over 2,000 high street shoe and watch repair stores as well as photo processing, dry cleaning and mobile phone repair businesses. - Telegraph
A record low number of small businesses are expecting to grow this year and their owners are in despair about Brexit and rising labour costs. Only 45 per cent of small businesses expect to expand over the next 12 months, according to the Federation of Small Businesses. Its quarterly confidence index measure stood at -8.8 in the second quarter, down 22 points on a year ago. It is the fourth consecutive negative reading. – The Times
America’s giant technology companies have been warned that loopholes used to minimise their tax bills could be closed by next year. The G20 club of the world’s largest economies have agreed to speed up an overhaul of the global tax code aimed at extracting more from the likes of Google, Facebook and Apple. Meeting in Japan yesterday, the countries’ finance ministers agreed to complete a long-awaited reboot of the tax system by the end of next year. – The Times