Indulging its penchant for Orwellian language, the New Labour government in the United Kingdom today described a massive tax hit for the beleaguered life assurance industry as “fairer.”
Paymaster General Dawn Primarolo announced measures, to be included in the 2003 Finance Bill, which will prevent non-mutual life offices offsetting losses in portfolios against gains in others. Listed life offices, already reeling from continuing weakness in stock markets, anticipate a large rise in their tax burden. Which may be why the government announced the change on Christmas Eve – hoping nobody would notice until it was too late.