United Kingdom

    Should Britain choose to leave the European Union (EU), British citizens owning houses in France could end up paying an extra 10% in tax should they decide to sell their properties. EU citizens wishing to buy or sell a property in France face a 39.5% tax. Aspiring buyers have to first pay the tax in France, which can then be offset when it comes to paying taxes in their native countries, as long as it is part of the 28-country bloc. The tax comprises capital gains tax of 19%, a surcharge of up to 6% and social charges of up to 15.5%, equating to a maximum of 36.5%. The French capital gains tax and surcharge paid can then be offset against the tax due in the UK at up to 28%, while French social charges cannot be offset, meaning up to an extra 3% worth of tax is payable in t...

    George Osborne clears path for tax cuts in Budget with £1bn benefits raid More than 600,000 disabled people will lose a portion of their benefits payments in a move that will save £1.2billion by 2020 and could allow the Chancellor to cut taxes for the middle classes. Benefits payments to the disabled are to be cut by more than £1billion in a move that could clear the way for George Osborne to cut taxes for the middle classes in the Budget. Ministers on Friday announced that more than 600,000 disabled people will lose a portion of their benefits payments, in a move that will save £1.2billion by 2020. It gives the Chancellor extra money, which insiders believe he could use to cut taxes in his Budget next week. The Chancellor is set to raise the threshold at which people star...

    Nearly 6,000 foreign national criminals who are eligible for deportation from Britain have been released to live in the community, new figures have revealed. Official Home Office data disclosed how an average of five foreign offenders a day were freed from jail or bailed from immigration detention in the final three months of last year. Many will be claiming they cannot be deported because of their human rights, including the "right to private and family life" under Labour's Human Rights Act. Numbers have soared by nearly 900 in a year, with just 4,903 living in the community at the end of 2014 compared with 5,789 at the end of last year - a jump of 18 per cent. In 2012 the figure was less than 4,000. The figures, reported for the first time today, emerged in a report by t...

    A video has captured the moments tram passengers in Manchester stood up to a man who allegedly made disparaging comments to people who were not talking in English. In the recording, which starts after the offending remarks were made, a man can be heard speaking up for a couple, believed to be Spanish. A voice is heard saying "Who cares if they're talking in a foreign language?" People then tell him not to "waste his time" talking to the man. The allegedly offensive passenger then asks another passenger if he is English. "Yeah I am English and I'm not bothered what country anyone comes from," the voice replies. The man then asks: "Are you gay?" The speaker then says that he is, and "who cares if I am?" The man accused of being offensive replies: "There you go...so I'm racis...

    The Government is facing the prospect of defeat in the Commons over its plans to relax Sunday Trading laws in England and Wales after the Scottish National Party said it would oppose the plans. George Osborne already faces a major Tory rebellion when the vote takes place in the Commons later. Labour is urging the Government to "admit defeat" as dozens of Conservative backbenchers are expected to oppose the change. And this, combined with opposition from Labour and the SNP, could see the Government lose its slim majority. Under the Government's plans, proposed by the Chancellor last year and contained in Business Secretary Sajid Javid's Enterprise Bill, local authorities would be given the power to extend Sunday opening hours. Scotland already has relaxed laws for shop owne...

    A woman has been jailed for three years after police discovered 2,000 rounds of ammunition, hand grenades and other explosives in her house. Heather Exley, 44, appeared at Leeds Crown Court, where a judge was told that the hoard of explosives posed a clear danger to a residential area but her motivation for keeping such a collection was unclear. Specialists from the North East Counter Terrorism Unit spent a number of days searching her house in Liversedge, West Yorkshire, in April 2014 as part of a drugs inquiry. They found hundreds of rounds of ammunition - including cartridges, hollow point bullets and soft nose bullets - improvised hand grenades, partially-constructed hand grenades, improvised detonators, the explosive PETN and other explosive material. In November last...

    Mothers will be £13bn worse off under the current Government as a result of policies announced over the past year, according to a new analysis. Labour described the figures – produced by the House of Commons Library – as a disgrace”, saying mothers played a key role in society but had been hit with a “stonking great bill. The research looked at the effects on women with dependent children of a number of changes announced by Chancellor George Osborne, since last year’s general election. It found that cuts to universal credit, the four-year freeze on child benefit and other welfare payments, reductions in housing benefit and other policies outweighed increases to the personal income tax allowance and extra money for childcare. The overall impact meant mothers will be £13bn w...

    Do you live in the capital’s most adulterous postcode? According to a table of the capital’s cheating hotspots, Kensington and Chelsea has topped the list of London postcodes for extramarital affairs. The royal borough has been officially named as the place where a husband or wife is most likely to have an affair, based on data from - Britain's leading dating website for married people. It has 8,520 people cheating out of a population of 78,500 - meaning 5.67 per cent of the borough's couples are seeking excitement outside their marriage. Top 10 London boroughs for cheating. 1. Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea 2. Hammersmith and Fulham 3. Islington 4. Bromley 5. Brent 6. Tower Hamlets 7. Camden 8. Merton 9. Wandsworth 10. Ealing Hammersmith and Fulham follows in s...

    House price growth will come under pressure from increasing supply and affordability issues, said building society Halifax. A housing shortage in some areas of the country, low interest rates and a healing economy have fueled house prices in recent years. The Halifax House Price Index for February 2016 said average prices rose 9.7% over the year to £209,495. The quarterly increase was 3%. "Prices continue to rise at a robust pace driven by a significant imbalance between supply and demand," said Martin Ellis, Halifax housing economist. "Whilst this position is likely to continue over the coming months, there are some tentative signs that the supply situation may be beginning to improve. Instructions for secondhand properties coming up for sale have increased in the past...

    George Osborne has abandoned plans for a tax raid on the pensions of millions of middle-class workers in his forthcoming Budget amid concerns that it will "damage saving". The Chancellor had been considering plans to abolish higher rate tax relief in a move which Tory MPs had warned cause a "riot" within the Conservative party and damage his leadership ambitions. However he has now dropped the plans from his Budget entirely amid concerns that global economic uncertainty means it is "not the right time" for radical reforms. Other changes, such as a cut in the amount people can put in their pension pots before being hit with penal rate rates of tax, have not been formally ruled out but are understood to be unlikely. The proposals to overhaul pensions had led to a series of r...