The UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling made his third pre-Budget presentation today and it was within this pre-Budget presentation, that he announced the much imminent 50% tax on bank bonuses.

According to reports from rttnews.com, Alistair said that the choice facing the country at the moment is between securing recovery and wrecking it. He then went on to say that to cut support now could wreck the recovery.

Alistair claims that it is a risk that he is not prepared to take. So effective as from today, the Chancellor has introduced a special one-off levy of 50% on any individual discretionary bonus that is above 25,000 GBP.

Darling said that if banks use their profits for paying bonuses instead of using it to build their capital, they will have to pay a large amount back to the taxpayer. He then mentioned the decision against imposing a windfall tax on profits.

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