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What would and should the Chancellor do this year?

13

Comments

  • geo555 wrote:
    Abolish inheritance tax.
    Introduce a flat rate tax at 25%.

    High tax rates creates tax avoidance.

    What an idiot!!!!

    Inheritance tax is a reasonable tax in a progressive society - my parents didn't inherit £300,00 and I dont expect to - what would I do with it? - same as everyone elser - fuel house price inflation and excaserbate the first time buyer situation of course.

    As for "High tax rates creates tax avoidance." - sounds a bit like "open windows creates theft"

    What we need is taxation to encourage greener living - eg LPG fuel etc

    Mike
  • aloiseb
    aloiseb Posts: 701 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    What an idiot!!!!


    What we need is taxation to encourage greener living - eg LPG fuel etc

    Mike

    Not very parliamentary language Mike and plant! - but I agree about the greener living. I'd like to see:
    :) double road tax on 4x4s (becasue I'm sick of nearly getting run over every day on the way to school)
    :) realistic incentives for people to use renewable energy - e.g. 50% grants for installing solar panels
    :) more tax relief on childcare so that working parents can afford to get to work by public transport

    I don't hold out much hope, however!....

    much more likely to be more petrol tax, more tax on beer and fags and more clever sneaky stuff with things like pensions and investments which raise a lot of money without anybody much noticing.
  • Vaz_2
    Vaz_2 Posts: 3 Newbie
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    [QUOTE
    What we need is taxation to encourage greener living - eg LPG fuel etc

    Mike[/QUOTE]

    He wont do that, governments/chancellors are too dumb. Just carry on inflating the price of LPG until it is not worth while to convert/run your car on lpg.
    So business's converting go out of business (less tax collected, etc, more benefits to pay out), less lpg is sold, (again less tax to collect), oil companies will then just flare it off at the oil rig, (no tax collected). Talk about kill the goose that lays the golden egg.
  • One myth about the Budget is that the fuel duty on the petrol in forecourt tanks goes up at 6pm on Budget day - it does not!

    This is a profit generating mechanism that has been allowed by succesive Governments.

    All of the fuel held in petrol stations is duty paid at the old rate (and indeed, the petrol companies pay duty at the old rate on as much fuel as they can hold outside of "bonded warehouses" - this is called "forestalling") - so when they put the price up at the pump, it is pure profit not extra duty. This can continue for some weeks after, untill they run out of the already duty paid fuel.

    As you would expect, this makes millions in profit for the petrol companies.......and additional VAT for the Exchequer!! As ever, we are the mugs!!
  • Aark
    Aark Posts: 247 Forumite
    I think most concerns over Inheritance Tax would be solved by some type of Principal Private Residence exemption. The start of the 40% band could then be lowered to tax more on accumulated savings/investments.

    I would be in favour of fewer taxes (in number) to simplify our tax system. This should mainly be focused on eliminating taxes which have little relation to ability to pay or usage.

    The road fund licence tax could be abolished and duty on petrol increased. This removes a flat rate charge and instead you pay more tax the more you use, i.e. more fuel efficient cars and lower mileage drivers would be better off.

    National Insurance Contributions could be phased out and incorporated into Income Tax to simplify the tax system. The personal allowance for over-65s could be increased to balance the additional tax that those over state pension age would face. Obviously this isn't going to happen as Chancellors need something to fiddle with when they have promised not to raise Income Tax.

    The television licence should also be abolished and the BBC paid for from general taxation if it is to remain publicly-funded. Who doesn't have a television? A flat tax (and I believe it is now officially a tax) doesn't reflect ability to pay or usage, so I feel that direct funding from Government is the fairest system.
  • Wayne1_2
    Wayne1_2 Posts: 12 Forumite
    This year the Chancellor should tell us where the money has gone. Have a look at the link below for some frightening figures and an explanation of why we are all feeling pretty poor and have to save as much money as possible. Thank goodness for moneysvingexpert.com.

    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2092829,00.html
  • Annabee
    Annabee Posts: 653 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Photogenic Combo Breaker
    The personal allowance is ridiculous at £4,000-odd. Nobody can reasonably live on this, so it should be raised to at least £10,000.

    It would be fairer to families where only one parent has earned income if the stay-at-home partner could transfer at least part of their allowance to their earning partner. The whole system, including tax credits, is heavily weighted in favour of dual-income households. Government should not be forcing people to both be economically active just because that suits its own ideology.

    Also, Child Trust funds, minus the government hand-out money, should be available for all kids. With the cost of university and homes for first-time buyers both rapidly increasing its completely illogical for the government to bend over backwards for children born after Sept 2002 (or whenever it was)
    and then say that if you save for kids born prior to this, then TUT TUT we will TAX THE PARENT if the interest comes to £100 or above HOW DARE YOU try to save for your children's future. How on earth do they reconcile this?

    However, I don't expect Gordon will be doing any of this, just tinkering about with temporary handouts to make himself look good and boasting about how well the economy is doing. Same as every year.
  • al_yrpal
    al_yrpal Posts: 339 Forumite
    a) He will increase tax on anyone savvy enough to make and save money and stand on their own feet, and reward scroungers.

    b) He should encourage enterprise, personal independence and dignity, making money and personal savings, but as usual he won't because he's an old style socialist who wouldn't recognise the difference between an entrepeneur and a pork pie. His budget is designed for a little old lady in Kirkaldy, and whilst she must be protected, he has no concept of how hard working frugal folk should be allowed to keep what they earn without his slippery fingers robbing their purses.

    Its time we rid the house of commons of failed lawyers and filled it with real people, and as for the Lords, chuck the lot out and vote our choice in. Then we'd get just laws, effective courts, efficient public services and lower taxes.

    As Wolfie once said - "Power to the People!"
    Survivor of debt, redundancy, endowment scams, share crashes, sky-high inflation, lousy financial advice, and multiple house price booms. Comfortably retired after learning to back my own judgement.
    This is not advice - hopefully it's common sense..
  • cardtart_2
    cardtart_2 Posts: 1,140 Forumite
    I,ll sum this government up in 3 words ,tax,spend ,ban
    bye hoo
  • He should abolish the road tax and increase fuel duty making it a fairer system, but if he does that then when he wants to make more money from cars he will have to raise the duty on fuel getting protests and the like. Whereas at the moment he can raise road tax and the lower rate road users won't protest over a small rise and those who do the protests are getting of lightly with the rise so won't mind so much. I hope that makes sense.
    [FONT=georgia, bookman old style, palatino linotype, book antiqua, palatino, trebuchet ms, helvetica, garamond, sans-serif, arial, verdana, avante garde, century gothic, comic sans ms, times, times new roman, serif]A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don't need it
    [/FONT]
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