Экономические тексты с переводами / пересказзз

The Budget

The budget is the government's main economic statement of the year.

It is a forecast of revenue and expenditure for the conning year.

In Great Britain the budget is prepared and usually issued in March.

In a major speech to Parliament, the Chancellor of the Exchequer

re­views the nation's economic performance and describes the

govern­ment's economic objectives.

In November 1993 Great Britain introduced the "so-called" Uni­fied Budget.

The Budget now covers both the government's taxation plans for the

coming financial year and its spending plans for the next three years.

The main sources of revenue are:

• Tax on income;

• Taxes on expenditure, which include VAT (Value Added Tax) and

customs and excise duties;

• National Insurance contributions.

Taxes

Taxes are a compulsory financial contribution by a person or body

of persons towards the expenditure of a public authority.

The government has a choice of taxing income, wealth or consump­tion

to finance its expenditure on defence, social services, municipal services etc.

The main forms of direct tax are income tax paid by individuals

and corporation tax paid by businesses.

Income tax can be progressive, proportional or regressive.

Indirect taxes added tax and excise duties.

Some people argue for a more direct link between specific taxes

and particular items of government expenditure.

But it is impossible for the government to match all individual

taxes with particular spending programmes.

The major principles of a tax system are that it should

be equitable and reasonable.