UK: Hunt prepares to hike business air travel taxes to fund budget giveaways

UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt is considering raising air passenger duty on business travel as a potential revenue-raising measure to help pay for personal tax cuts in the budget on Wednesday. Air passenger duty on business class travel is currently charged at GBP13 ($16.5) for domestic flights, GBP26 for flights up to 2,000 miles, GBP191 for flights up to 5,000 miles and GBP200 for flights longer than that, with some small increases already due to come in on April 1. But Hunt is now considering a further rise alongside options such as scrapping the non-domiciled tax status and extending a windfall tax on oil and gas company profits, according to people familiar with the matter. The chancellor is having to consider such measures because of a desire to cut personal taxes to give the Conservative Party a poll boost ahead of an election expected later this year. He’s looking for ways to raise funds because he starts from a weak economic position: the Office for Budget Responsibility has estimated he has only GBP13b of headroom against his fiscal rule to get the national debt falling within 5 years, a margin near historic lows. Air passenger duty — including that raised from standard-class seats — raised GBP3.2b for the government in 2022-2023 financial year.<br/>