Child benefit to be scrapped for higher rate tax payers from 2013

StevieJ

Really2 wrote: »

It may be slightly unfair but lets face it there will be more familys earning £88K+ and have a top rate earner than family that earn £88K and don't.
.

I can't agree with your stance on this, It doesn't have to cost anything, all they have to do is require them to self declare it, if they don't and it is picked up later on a tax investigation they can be fined like other tax cheats.

BACKFRMTHEEDGE

carolt wrote: »

Pah. FURIOUS. :mad:

You should have voted Labour then shouldn't you?

What on earth did you expect?

You've spent years off your life running down the last Labour Government on this board and all I can say is that some people don't know when they are lucky!

LOL:p

BACKFRMTHEEDGE

movilogo wrote: »

This will end up driving more people towards divorce. The rule is just ridiculous unless it is based on combined household income.

Or not getting together in the first place - I'm thinking reconstituted families here (second, third, etc marriages).

LilacPixie

michaels wrote: »

Sorry, haven't read every page but I did think the impact on house prices needs to be looked at carefully.

Of late the 'family' (3 bed+) part of the market seems to have been the strongest - reduce family incomes by a gross 3/4k (which this will do for a typical 2/3 kids family) and suddenly prices look a lot less affordable. (Note this argument probably makes more sense in London/SE than the rest of the country).

I half had a thought along these lines. Isort of dismissed it because I thought that CB for 3 kids 2.5k a year plus £500 tax credits if earning between 25-56k roughly so those families with a higher rate TP earning say 50k and 3 kids would lose 3k a year. Would someone on 50k a year in london/SE be able to 'afford' the typical 3 bed semi?? No idea of what one would cost there as i'm 600 miles away.
So if a family 'loses' 3k of income a year that equates to maybe 15k mortgage amount using 5x income very generous multiple so 8-10% off house prices?


I'm also a bit uncomfortable with the thought that some people complaining they cannot afford to 'lose' the child benefit are people saving considerable amounts of cash for a house deposit or paying off mortgage early via offset.

A 'friend' of mine is a music teacher, her husband is a Solicitor she has two kids, large house that her husband inherited and they have a holiday home in Bulgaria. She was complaining they couldn't 'afford' to lose 2k a year. I imagine their joint income to be easy 6 figures. They are looking around for a 1 bed flat in Edinburgh for his 19 year old son who studies there so really I don't think its a case of they will be below the poverty line because of no child benefit.

We have also seen some people complaining that it will set their mortgage free date back or hit their target date for having X amount of mortgage deposit. Can anyone seriously say hand on heart that they believe families who can overpay a mortgage, save tens of thousands of pounds for deposits really NEED child benefit. I personally don't think they do. All this think of the children, they are the ones who will suffer type hysteria. If as a parent you will let your children suffer for the sake of £130 a month (2 kids) then really I doubt your ability to parent.

I have said before we are 'lucky' both work, both under higher rate threshold but jointly we have an above average income and as such don't get tax credits as things stand just now and certainly won't get them with the cuts due in April 2011. We will continue to receive child benefit as things currently stand but I think between now and 2013 that will be tweaked so it isn't the case.
I still think the 'fairest' thing would be to limit the number of children on a claim to 1 possibly 2. Although I do think the white horse's proposal of taxcoding has merit as well.

chucky

BACKFRMTHEEDGE wrote: »

You should have voted Labour then shouldn't you?

What on earth did you expect?

You've spent years off your life running down the last Labour Government on this board and all I can say is that some people don't know when they are lucky!

LOL:p

that's a good point

the last government were rubbish, but many people that were throwing abuse at the last government are the same ones that are not happy with this one...

movilogo

Either abolish child benefit for all or none.

If anyone wants to breed, they should ensure they have money to feed the kids. If someone claims s/he can't feed the kid(s) for not having money, then s/he should be imprisoned for cruelty towards child(ren).

StevieJ

olly300 wrote: »

I don't think it's fair but then I don't want my taxes wasted with more means testing for people. Remember this is just the start of the announcements about spending cuts.

Self declaration on tax return, how much does that cost?

Graham_Devon

Hmmm, we aint had a decent argument for ages on this board. When are the Halifax figures out?

RenovationMan

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Hmmm, we aint had a decent argument for ages on this board. When are the Halifax figures out?

Its very exciting to watch this play out, Ive not been this interested in politics since Thatcher! Brilliant!

silvercar

The problem with reducing child benefit eligibility through the tax code is that it doesn't give the money to those not earning. You really don't want to give to the lower earning partner and then tax it away through the higher earner's tax payment.