Today's Budget

golddigger_3

Could any of you clever people :money: out there give us a laymans explanation of what today's budget means to the man (or woman) on the street?

In particluar - married couple allowance
tax (car/ income etc)
child allowance
savings

Some of the changes don't come in for a while, but are there any that affect us in the near future and what it could mean?

Not clever enough to seperate the wheat from the chaff myself

oops_a_daisy

there is a link on MSN money that calculates how much better / worse off you will be - not sure how good it is but I will be about £60 per year worse off :mad:

here is the link

Toto

I know I will be paying more for my car tax, I expected this. Yes I drive a 4x4 but it's ever so nice Seriously though, I have 3 kids and play drums for 1/2 a living so I need something big. Budgets make me grumpy by and large so I try to stay away until it is all thrust at me. I can pretty much guarantee though that I will be worse off one way or another, all that changes is which pocket Gordon takes it from.

GirlRacer_2

Hey Toto, me too, been stung by the road tax!!!! Don't really know how else I've been affected though

Toto

Oh well, we should look on the bright side, at least we are £100 better off this year than we will be next year:rotfl:

GirlRacer_2

Yeah that's true. The other positive fact that people keep pointing out to me is that I can get to work in the snow. I prefer to point out that I can also GET HOME from work in the snow!!!

Toto

My 4x4 can only deal with snow in a homeward direction, it doesn't go in the work one, I thought that was built in as standard

livinginhope

Just worked ours out and we will be £66.18 a year BETTER OFF!!!! yeah!!
BTW,we also drive a 4x4,but because it's 10 years old,it comes under the old tax system,so only a small increase there.

comping_cat

Hes going to reduce the basic rate of tax from NEXT April, from 22%, to 20%. But, he is scrapping the lower starting rate of 10% (so that will pay for the other tax cut then) Apparently, its the 'poorer' people who will suffer more from this, but he is increasing tax credits (from and to what i dont think he has said) so that should help!!??
Child benefit has gone up by about £1 a week, and by 2010 the first child will get £20 a week, doesnt say what any other children will get, and again, the £20 isnt for 3 years.
You can now save £3600 in cash in an ISA instead of £3000.
No idea if he has done anything re married couples, havnt heard anything on the news.
Cars - yup, if you drive a big one, it will cost £300 next year, £400 the year after!!!

comping_cat

livinginhope wrote: »

Just worked ours out and we will be £66.18 a year BETTER OFF!!!! yeah!!

Mine says i will be £40 better off a year - so im not even getting the whole £1.25 a week from the increase in child benefit then!!!!

Elliesmum

Toto wrote: »

My 4x4 can only deal with snow in a homeward direction, it doesn't go in the work one, I thought that was built in as standard

Toto - did you buy yours from the same garage as me :rotfl: Mine's the same - can manage the homeward journey but never the outbound. :T

EM xx