Osborne Accused of Accounting Tricks to Meet Budget Surplus Goal
- OBR says surplus goal relies on Budget policy shifts
- Capital investment and corporation tax payments rescheduled
U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, juggling slower-than-expected growth with a legally binding target to deliver a budget surplus by the end of the decade, resorted to what some economists dismissed as accounting tricks to make his sums work.
Unveiling forecasts for a 10.4 billion-pound ($14.8 billion) surplus in 2019-2020 in his budget on Wednesday, Osborne rescheduled capital investment, promised post-dated spending cuts and shifted a one-off boost to corporation-tax receipts into 2019, analysis of the budget by Britain’s fiscal watchdog shows. The Office for Budget Responsibility estimates that policy measures will raise 13.7 billion pounds in 2019-20 and 13.1 billion pounds in 2020-21, helping to offset the loss of tax revenue.