Live coverage of the Budget 2012

READ: Chancellor's statement

Budget Highlights:

• Top income tax rate will be reduced to 45% from April next year
• Stamp duty rate on properties worth more than £2m via companies will be raised to 15%
• Point at which people start paying income tax will be raised to £9,205 from next April
• A single tier pension, at a minimum of £140, will be set
• Labour leader Ed Miliband says millions of people will be paying more, while millionaires pay less
• Mr Miliband says there is a tax rise for pensioners "hidden" in the details of the Budget

Our expert bloggers are:

Chas Roy-Chowdhury: Head of Taxation at ACCA and secretary to the ACCA Taxation Committee; Chas is in regular contact with many Government departments such as the HM Revenue and Customs through formal committees and ad hoc meetings.

Manos Schizas: Policy adviser with ACCA's SME Unit. Manos joined ACCA in 2008 from the UK's Financial Services Skills Council, where he worked as a researcher. Manos' work focuses on SME access to finance and the public procurement market, as well as Better Regulation and Enterprise Training.

John Davies: Responsible for ACCA's work on technical policy matters affecting the accountancy profession. As well as co-ordinating the range of ACCA’s activities John has a special interest in company law, insolvency and pensions matters and is directly responsible for ACCA's outputs in those areas.

Gillian Fawcett: Gillian is Head of Public Sector for ACCA Global responsible for developing policy on technical matters affecting public services and monitoring developments. Before joining ACCA, Gillian was a Senior Fellow working with the Office for Public Management (OPM) in the organisational development and policy team.

Andrew Leck: As head of ACCA UK, Andrew delivers the long-term strategy for ACCA in the UK, the largest of ACCA’s global markets. Andrew joined ACCA in December 2007 as head of ACCA Scotland before moving into his current role.

Latest Budget tweets from the Treasury

Watford Observer has no responsibility or control over the content on external blogging sites, but you can contact us if you have a complaint.