Cash Isa Petition

meggsy

Please sign the cash isa petition if you agree ...

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/38599

Paul_Herring

When are people going to realise all these epetitions are a waste of time.

Time and time again, despite what the govermnent say, they simply ignore them.

innovate

They are a waste of time if no significant number of people signs them. As soon as there is some critical mass, the politicians will fear about the next election and get off their backsides.

I have added my voice to this petition - - a drop in the ocean so far, but hopefully many more will sign, too

Paul_Herring

innovate wrote: »

As soon as there is some critical mass, the politicians will fear about the next election and get off their backsides

No. They won't. Seriously - they'll promise to do something, then never get round to doing it.

For example:

Conservatives: Promised EU referendum; changed goal posts therefore never happened.

Lib Dems: Promised to scrap/no rise in tuition fees - reneged.

Coalition: Keep VAT at 17.5% - oops.

Labour (last parliament): halve poverty by 2010. Never happened, nowhere close.

innovate

I am sorry to hear your glass is half empty - - - have a look at mine, it's half full :cool:

dunstonh

Not signing as the petition lacks any substance on who will pay for it.

The reason the S&S ISA allowance is higher than cash as it that there is less hit on the treasury compared to cash ISAs. Plus, S&S ISAs can help the economy with their investments but cash ISAs do not.

in 2011/12 there wsa £54 billion put into ISAs. Just under £40 billion was in cash ISAs. The market value of ISAs at the end of 2010/11 was £385 billion (up from 343 billion at the end of 2009/10. The split is roughly the same between cash and S&S ISA.

The cost of ISAs in lost tax was £1.6 billion in 2009/10. That will be mostly on cash ISAs. So, if you want to double the allowance then how are you going to pay for that extra £1.6 billion (which would be more like £1.8 billion now). Also, with the loss of benefit to the economy which is harder to put a figure on, who is going to pay for that?

Put a good argument together on what groups will face cuts to pay for the lost economic benefit and lost tax revenue and then you have a good petition. until then it is not going to get anywhere.

grey_gym_sock

i might start a petition to abolish ISAs ... but, as dunston suggests, it would make more sense if it said what should be done with the extra tax revenue ... if it's £1.8 billion, i'm not sure what to suggest ... it's several times what it would cost to restore EMA; but not enough to abolish tuition fees .... hmmm ...

jimjames

You've got to love the lack of consistency of the Mail. On another page they'll be complaining about all these rich people loading their ISAs to the max to avoid paying tax!

I'm curious how many people are actually affected by the current cash ISA limit which is annual after all. Other than those who have got a retirement lump sum I'd imagine that the vast majority of working families or young people would be nowhere near reaching the current limits let alone doubling them.

innovate

Good point dunstonh, there is no mention of how this would be funded.

But that doesn't mean money couldn't be made available - - e.g. some or all of the foreign aid funding that India said they don't need could be put to good use at home. Of course you could argue whether ISAs are good use, but I would argue it is (for entirely selfish reasons, I admit).

innovate

jimjames wrote: »

I'm curious how many people are actually affected by the current cash ISA limit which is annual after all. Other than those who have got a retirement lump sum I'd imagine that the vast majority of working families or young people would be nowhere near reaching the current limits let alone doubling them.

Ah, so it doesn't even cost an awful lot to lift the limit
Shouldn't be hard then for that nice Mr Osborne to grab some positive headlines........he could badly do with some, after all

grey_gym_sock

so your argument for raising the ISA limit is that it would benefit you?