TAX NEWS - JUNE 2010

U.K. Tax: U.K. reportedly to press ahead with bank tax

The U.K. will press ahead with plans to impose a new tax on banks after G20 finance ministers dropped plans for a worldwide levy, the Financial Times reported. Chancellor George Osborne is expected to outline his plans in the June 22 budget, the newspaper said.

Finance ministers at the meeting in Busan, South Korea, scrapped the plan in the face of opposition led by Canada, which did not bail out its banks during the financial crisis, the report added.

Bruce Packard, an analyst at Seymour Pierce, said that without international agreement, it's likely the tax would have to be watered down so as not to disadvantage U.K. banks against international peers.