And there’s more good tax news on the horizon…

That’s sarcasm by the way.

A report issued this week by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), which is an independent bunch of tax experts who examine tax all day, has confirmed that 2011 is not going to be a good year if you wanted to pay less tax.

The tax and benefit changes due in April 2011 equate to a net loss (and Treasury gain) of £5.4 billion in 2011–12 which is the equivalent of £200 per household. Including yours. What’s worse, this is in addition to the effect of the VAT, fuel duty and other indirect tax increases in January which come out at a whopping £480 per household on average.  With salaries already eroded by inflation, this is not great news for the average pocket.

Of course, not everyone (anyone?) is an average taxpayer and there will always be winners and losers. Unsurprisingly, the wealthiest will contribute the most, their tax changes exacerbated by the restriction on pension contributions, although it is one earner families with children who will be worst affected. At the other end of the scale, increasing the personal allowance to £7,475 will remove 500,000 taxpayers from the charge to tax, but mean 750,000 become higher rate (40%) taxpayers in the trade off.

The Government, of course ‘aspires’ (remember when that was a Liberal Democrat Pledge) to increase the personal income tax allowance to £10,000 in 2015–16, which would increase the number of higher rate taxpayers by a further 850,000 but take another million people out of income tax altogether. Which is probably a good thing.

The report concludes that the main winners from these reforms are non-working lone parents, being the only household type to gain on average, and low- to middle-income households without children. Amazingly, the reforms “will slightly weaken the incentive to work at all”.

Right. I’m off down the dole office.

Kraft outrageously decide to make Cadbury’s Dairy Milk smaller

Remember those machines you got at Christmas which dispensed tiny Dairy Milks? They were great weren’t they? Miniature versions of big things have a certain charm that fill you with novelty glee.

However, thanks to Kraft being massive shit heads, all Cadbury Dairy Milks are going to be pointlessly small because, thanks to “economic reasons”, they’re downsizing the bar.

Honestly. You may as well buy a stupid Freddo bar.

The size of the treat is being cut because if it didn’t, prices would have to rise. In real terms, that means a 140g bar of Dairy Milk is now reduced to 120g and has two fewer squares. Bastards.

In a statement, Kraft say: “We have taken this decision because of a number of economic factors including ingredient costs. By reducing the size of our 140g bar to 120g we have been able to hold the bar at this price although we believe our confectionery still represents a very affordable treat.”

At this rate, there’ll be more chocolate on the plastic innards of a Kinder Egg.

Man faces jail for stealing imaginary objects

Some crafty sod or, if you prefer, a computer hacker has admitted stealing $12 milion worth of poker chips from Zynga, which is one of those social networking online gambling site things.

Ashley Mitchell of Paignton made-off with the completely imaginary 400 billion chips and put them into his account. Then, he sold the things that don’t really exist on the black market which could have pocketed him £184,000 on top of the £53,000 he’d already made when he was arrested.

Making money on conceptual things. Brilliant. Going to prison for imaginary poker chips. Crap.

Judge Wassell said he faced a hefty jail term for these offences as, in this case, UK courts are treating these virtual goods as the same as actual, real life products. Perhaps he should be made to serve his sentence in an imaginary jail with virtual inmates ganging up on him in an assumed potting shed, with their fictional cocks in their make-believe hands.

Prosectutor Gareth Evans said that Zynga had not been deprived of goods in the same way as normal fraud because they could always issue more, but there was a knock-on effect as they could lose legitimate gamers. So, if you ask him, it is the same as stealing from the Royal Mint.

Mental.