MILLIONS are to benefits from a series of tax giveaways later this month in George Osborne's final Budget before the General Election, according to reports.
The Conservative Chancellor is understood to be considering a dramatic move to again raise the level at which workers start to pay income tax.
Mr Osborne is also expected to announce a crackdown on multinationals companies who move their profits abroad in order to radically cut the amount of tax they pay in the UK.
Reports suggest that the rise in the personal allowance could be as high as £11,000, following discussions between Tory and Lib Dem ministers later this week.
The allowance is already due to rise £10,600, from £10,000, in April, just as the General Election campaign officially gets under way.
But ministers are keen to to move it even higher, and take more workers out of paying tax altogether.
The Chancellor is also expected to use his Budget cut the duty on whisky, following a long-running campaign by the Scottish whisky industry.
Similar cuts are also due to be announced on the tax on beer and cider.
Large international firms accused of not paying enough tax in the UK also also expected to be hit by a new "diverted profits tax", possibly charged at 25 per cent.
Companies with turnover under a certain amount are likely to be exempt from the new rules.
The Budget will be held just a fortnight before parliament is due to rise, making the start of the General Election campaign.
Mr Osborne is thought to have more money to spend following better-than-expected tax returns.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article