!!!!!! - Clown to raise the top rate of tax to 45%

michaels

A further thought on the VAT changes - my spending goes on food, children's clothes and school costs (meals, trips etc not private school), fuel, gas and electric, council tax and of course the mortgage. A 2.5% cut in VAT will save me about 2.50 on my £100 monthly petrol bill. I would buy a round to celebrate but it wouldn't even buy one drink...

kennyboy66_2

misskool wrote: »

The tax increase if true is pure class war stuff. None of this is about fixing the economy, it's about giving Labour a chance in a snap election with a bit of populism, in 5 years the economic cycle will be on the up again and they'll be off the hook.

Either taxes will have to rise or spending has to be cut.
Where do you suggest they raise or cut the £2bn that this will supposedly raise.
After all its apparently on income above £150k. Hardly going to cripple 95% of the "middle class".

amcluesent

Clown's budget deficit will balloon to £120,000,000,000 next year, increasing tax to 45% would bring in £1.5B.

Where the other £118,500,000,000 going to be repaid from? Yep, 'Mondeo Man' is going to be robbed blind.

#Things can only get better...#

Lotus-eater

michaels wrote: »

A further thought on the VAT changes - my spending goes on food, children's clothes and school costs (meals, trips etc not private school), fuel, gas and electric, council tax and of course the mortgage. A 2.5% cut in VAT will save me about 2.50 on my £100 monthly petrol bill. I would buy a round to celebrate but it wouldn't even buy one drink...

Exactly my thoughts, how at all, is this supposed to help?
It encourages the wrong type of spending, those things you mention don't have VAT on them anyway.
That flat screen TV is looking more attractive all the time though :rolleyes:

Max_Headroom_3

econo wrote: »

Nothing against someone earning high wages Mizz, when they're earnt fairly on a level playing field of opportunity. Problem is in the good old UK they never have been and this hasn't been addressed,

I don't understand your point. Are you suggesting that highly paid company directors for example are chosen by pulling names from a hat?

dopester

kennyboy66 wrote: »

Either taxes will have to rise or spending has to be cut.
Where do you suggest they raise or cut the £2bn that this will supposedly raise.
After all its apparently on income above £150k. Hardly going to cripple 95% of the "middle class".

Cut the spending. How much is Afghanistan and Iraq costing us a year? What is our purpose out there.

Sell Gibraltar back to Spain.

[Deleted User]

About time too

Max_Headroom_3

needahome wrote: »

the middle classes have done very well out the brown years, its them who should pay to get the country back in order.

A lot of the "middle classes" (and I'm guessing you mean typical dual income home owners with a couple of kids and professional type jobs) have been appearing to do very well, with new cars, new kitchens, nice holidays and bigger houses.

However it's become increasingly clear over the last 12 months that much of this was done with borrowed money, houses MEWed etc on the back of an artificial feeling of wealth and success created by house price rises.

This was the nub of Browns "Miracle economy". The more people borrowed and spent, the better everyone appeared to do as houses kept on going up (triggering yet more borrowing, either for them or using them as collateral), businesses did better (on the back of the borrowed money), banks appeared to be doing exceptionally well, making fortunes from all this lending (remember the City of London financial institutions being lauded as the "Powerhouse of the British Economy"?).

But the whole thing was built of quicksand. It relied on the additional borrowing never stopping. Unfortunately it all had to be underpinned by wages, and they weren't going up at the same rate. It's all very well all the Jones remortgaging and buying a new Range Rover and a trip to the Caribbean on the back of their house being "worth" another £100K, but they were left with some nice memories, a fast depreciating hunk of metal and another £50K on the mortgage to pay for every single month from then on in.

It couldn't last and it didn't, but the party seemed great for a while.

So please don't think that the middle classes were doing well, they just appeared to be.

As someone once said, you only see who's swimming naked when the tide goes out. Well there's an awful lot of "middle classes" floundering in the mud au naturelle right now...

Max_Headroom_3

Lotus-eater wrote: »

Exactly my thoughts, how at all, is this supposed to help?
It encourages the wrong type of spending, those things you mention don't have VAT on them anyway.
That flat screen TV is looking more attractive all the time though :rolleyes:

Spot on. This is what created the mess in the first place (see my post above for explanation).

All they're trying to do now is kickstart the party again. Unfortunately it's the morning after, the champers is flat, and we've all got to go to work with a hang over instead...

godsakes

this is good news, it's seems we're getting a fairer system

VAT is a regressive tax, it's socially right it should been kept small and the 45% rate strikes me as fair provided it's on new higher band (£150k).

but... i think some work needs to be done on the various offshore loopholes. Too many people find clever ways of masking their income as capital gains and take advantage of generous rules surrounding that.