Morning everyone,
George Osborne will be standing up to give his 2013 Budget at 12.30pm today. With the UK experiencing its longest period of economic stagnation for a century, and the public squeezed between rising fuel costs rise, falling welfare payments and flat-lining wages, the country will be giving him its full attention. In terms of family finances it's possible that the most significant announcement for most of us has been made already: the government outlined its plans for the Tax-Free Childcare Scheme yesterday (read all about it here). But inevitably there'll be plenty more to come - look out for announcements on fuel tax, first time buyers and alcohol (dear to your hearts, we know ... )
Here's a link to the BBC's live stream; for those of you at work who can't see it, we'll post the key announcements as they happen; do tell us what they mean for you.
And for those looking for an at-a-glance rundown of what's been said, we're delighted to welcome back Mark Dampier, head of research at independent financial advisers Hargreaves and Lansdowne, who'll be sending us his bullet-point version of the Budget as soon as possible after Osborne sits down. And Will Hadwen, rights adviser at charity Working Families, which offers advice on advice on employment rights, benefits and tax credits for working parents, will be giving us a breakdown of what the Budget means from their point of view.
Off we go ...
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Budget 2013: did you see it? What did you like/not like?
SarahMumsnet · 20/03/2013 12:00
I'm still not over the fact he did a U-turn on VAT on hot take away food (pasties/pies/sausage rolls.) It's unfair that as a small business we have to pay VAT on hot food we sell from a hot cabinet (been law since the 80s) yet big companies such as Greggs carry on using the legal loophole to avoid VAT by exployting the fact they have a high turnover of customers so can therefore bake throughout the day and sell it from there unheated display because have a quick turnover. 
Last Budget they tried to close that loophole until Greggs made it sound like the Government were bringing in VAT on hot takeaway food for the first time when in actual fact it had been law since the 80s to charge VAT on food served from a hot cabinet or if it is kept hot from heated lamps. VAT was never applied to food that is cooked and left to cool because that covered things such as pies that would be bought and re-heated later at home for tea etc. Sadly Greggs and the like took advantage of this loophole by baking throughout the day and serving lukewarm pasties to fool the public they wanted you to have it "freshly baked." In other words serve you lukewarm pasties to aviod VAT.
So smaller business loose out and the big guys win as usual.. that lost you my vote Mr Osbourne.
MrAnchovy 
I was generalising.
It is fairly usual to announce measures further out though, isn't it?
God i must hate red ed i wish he would just sit down he looks like a random that just wondered in and picked up the mic
I shudder at the thought the lefties will no doubut vote him in to rule over us all maybe they may bankrupt us again 
Dear lord cant even imagain this foll standing next to obama the might think hes the work experince boy or worse its a joke
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