THE early birds got the word the morning after Chancellor Gordon Brown's Budget.

Bolton Bury Training and Enterprise Council organised a special mini budget breakfast in Bolton Town Hall.

About 200 people turned-up to hear an analysis delivered by Mark Baines, Tax Partner at the Manchester office of accountants Deloitte & Touche.

Mr Baines, who specialises in owner-managed businesses, went through various aspects of the Budget and their relevance to the people in the audience

He referred to the Chancellor's decision to abolish the 20 per cent tax credit enjoyed by pension funds.

"It is going to cost so much more to get your pension," he said.

Everybody was advised to look at their financial planning again. "It is a whole new ball game," Mr Baines said.

Pension funds would also be affected because many of them were shareholders in the privatised utilities hit by the Chancellor's Windfall Tax.

Mr Baines also talked about the big hope involved in the Government's welfare-to-work scheme designed to cut benefit costs by getting more people into jobs.

"It is in everyone's interest to make the programme work," he said.

"If it does not work we are all going to have to pay more taxes."

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