Suggestions for Osborne's July budget

zagubov

Wild_Rover wrote: »

Well if the right wingeers here (or righty-winge-ers... copyright WildRover 2015) are content to make the poor and powerless pay even more heavily for something they did not cause, here's a couple more...

Double the employers' NI on any employer paying staff wages that require taxpayer support. ...

No NI holidays or concessions for employers of over 15 fte employees paying less than the "living wage".
(STOP THIS PUBLIC SUBSIDY OF PRIVATE PROFIT)

Fine the parents of under 16s who get piercings or tattoos 1000 quid for being @rseholes.

Instigate a 5 quid admission fee for anyone entering a place of worship and keep the NHS admission free.

More advice will follow after some more "thinking juice". The financial solution is clearly more than a 2 pint problem. ...

WR

A queuing charge in fast food outlets.

The ability to speed up traffic light changes at a cost.

Metred shutters on our windows after the views from our windows has been sold by Osbourne to his chums running the Vista View Corporation.

Privatised pavements with tollbooths at every crossing so we can pay to walk wherever in town we can afford to.

Hermetically sealed houses so that air can be economically supplied in bottles or by reliable underground piping running "competitive" local monopolies.

chewmylegoff

mwpt wrote: »

Agreed. I'm just stating what I think the reality is. Without tax rises, we won't have a balanced budget come the end of the tories term imo. Hopefully I'm wrong.

If the UK runs a surplus for any 1 year period during this parliamentary term, I will eat a bag of rusty nails.

zagubov

chewmylegoff wrote: »

If the UK runs a surplus for any 1 year period during this parliamentary term, I will eat a bag of rusty nails.

You will not need to eat said bag of rusty nails.;)
If I am wrong, I shall eat a spicy curry. No. I know we all know I hate them, but don't try to talk me out of it.

Generali

lisyloo wrote: »

Terrible idea for front line services. Urgency should be purely based on clinical need.

10/10 for pomposity. That's not really how GP services are rationed though.

Mortgagefreeman

caronoel wrote: »

Now THAT would be a disasterous policy.

Simon Lambert writing in today's Daily Mail reckons it could be in the Budget.

caronoel

IsaacHunt wrote: »

Simon Lambert writing in today's Daily Mail reckons it could be in the Budget.

It may well be - don't make it right though

Remember how well these taxes went down?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18244640
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/31/newsid_2530000/2530763.stm

I can picture the screaming for this tax to be repealed once rents start to shoot up, as they did in Ireland when they tried this in 1998.

mwpt

IsaacHunt wrote: »

I hear that getting rid of Tax relief for BTL mortgages is pretty high on the list.

I didn't vote Labour and don't wouldn't have wanted them in power, but I did agree with a few of their policies. As we shift toward more landlords and fewer owner occupiers, we should adapt and move toward the European (German) operational model of mandatory longer tenancies. Any BTL landlords who comply with the long tenancy laws will retain tax relief, but part time landlords who just want to rent out their house while they are away (for example) and require a shorter tenancy, don't get the tax relief. Means professional landlords should be in it for the long term (because their business involves the most important factor in most people's lives, their home), but "amateur" landlords retain flexibility on short term tenancies,

[Deleted User]

The budget is about loads of things - political posturing, impressing party donors, that kind of thing, but for the commoners, it's about 2 things - raising revenue and either encouraging or discouraging certain "behaviours".

Soooo - I head back to some of my old favourites and some that I maybe haven't mentioned before...

1) reconsider extent of tax reliefs on savings. We tax income, and that's fine, but if some folk have used "the system" to create a huge "self-generating" tax-free income, I think that needs to be looked at. If some have invested to the max in ISAs, particularly shares ISAs since their introduction, reinvesting tax free returns into the further producion of tax-free returns, a substantial income is probably being returned, in many cases above what "hard working families" will be earning. Given the importance of dealing with the deficit and debt, it's maybe time to say "fun's fun but get your @rse off the pillow". As I said the other day, anyone who has a spare 15 grand p.a. to invest doesn't need Government support to do it. In tough times it's the affordability that I question - even if any restriction only lasts until the "crisis" is over.

2) Remove the pension triple lock and replace it with inflation + 0.5% or at a push 0.75% above inflation. Again, in tough times it's the affordability that I question.

3) As times change, so do expenditure options, so the tax system needs to change to reflect that. Are e-ciggies/vapour ciggies taxed and "dutied" at the same rate as ciggies? If not they should be, or perhaps have a slight benefit over the cost of ciggies.

4) - this may be a local issue, but it is one that REALLY hacks me off. Councils should be required to make a decision - even if it's "no" - about the introduction of some form of tourism tax. In Edinburgh, the Council hugely supports the tourism industry (there are "Festivals" almost all year round - International+Fringe, Book, Jazz, Science etc) all helping jobs and business but the Council can get very little back. A levy on e,g, hotels/B&B beds per night would mean that other services might not have to be cut or the Granny in Craigmillar be faced with higher charges for services. 1 quid a night or a fiver a week would not, I think, stop the Americans, Australians or others coming here. At present, the Council is to far too large an extent subsidising businesses large and small. It needs to be looked at, I think.

5) Another annoyance for me - gold British coins like sovereigns and the newly available cheaper ones are VAT and CGT free (sliver ones are taxed at the normal rates) - In tough times it's the affordability that I question.

Why are we so keen to avoid taxing the taxpayer boosted savings* of the wealthy, and things more likely to be bought by the wealthy?

("the reinvestmet on untaxed dividends and sales proceeds in ISAs)

Lets see if G.O. has a budget that reflects the good old "all in it together". My view is that whoever is in the"it", it won't be the already rich and powerful.

WR

princeofpounds

Why are we so keen to avoid taxing the taxpayer boosted savings* of the wealthy, and things more likely to be bought by the wealthy?

Whilst I think this a perfectly reasonable question to ask, a simple reply would be that the tax system is already redistributionist enough. Especially if you view it on a net basis (tax paid - consumption of services).


People often lose sight of the fact that there are other reasons for tax than to enforce some kind of so-called social justice.

caronoel

Wild_Rover wrote: »

4) - this may be a local issue, but it is one that REALLY hacks me off. Councils should be required to make a decision - even if it's "no" - about the introduction of some form of tourism tax. In Edinburgh, the Council hugely supports the tourism industry (there are "Festivals" almost all year round - International+Fringe, Book, Jazz, Science etc) all helping jobs and business but the Council can get very little back. A levy on e,g, hotels/B&B beds per night would mean that other services might not have to be cut or the Granny in Craigmillar be faced with higher charges for services. 1 quid a night or a fiver a week would not, I think, stop the Americans, Australians or others coming here. At present, the Council is to far too large an extent subsidising businesses large and small. It needs to be looked at, I think.

Really like most of your ideas, especially this one.

I travel to the States and Asia on business regularly, and a small local hotel room tax is very often applied on a per night basis.

It does need to be applied at a local level though, as a national tax might unfairly impact tourism in marginal areas.