Suggestions for Osborne's July budget

cells

NICHOLAS wrote: »

It isn't though, they aren't slow killers. Apparently, according to the media, half the country, if not more, is obese. Fat people are prone to all sorts of illnesses that cost the NHS money, as do smokers and binge drinkers.

I used to be a smoker, a binge drinker and a takeaway muncher but i knocked it on the head to save money and to become healthy. I've saved £££££££££££ and only ever had to use the nhs once to get a cut glued together, but i'm still eligible to pay full National Insurance and the high taxes we get in rip off britain to account for all of those who are obese lager louts with 100 kids.

I think there has only been on year when smoking has profited the government and not cost them more in NHS spend, so why not put fags up even more? The same can be said for chocolate, what about all of the people getting free nhs treatment for their rotten teeth? There's countless ways fat and greedy people cost tax payers money... how much do gastic bands cost the nhs a year

death does not cost the NHS anything, life does

NICHOLAS_2

caronoel wrote: »

Really?

• My annual travelcard is £5k (Standard class),
• £10 a day on lunch and coffees, that's another £2k per year,
• New laptop or the latest iPhone anyone? There's another £1k

Plenty of other tax wheezes could take this up quickly to north of £10k. These sorts of perks shouldnt be subsidised by the taxpayer.


Add to that the Flat rate VAT scheme which effectively gives contractors a 6% pay uplift (7% in year 1), and the morality of these subsidies to people often earning well into six figures really becomes questionable.

What point are you trying to make?

You spend £10 day on food when out working? I spend probably just less than a fiver, and £2 of that is on drinks, i don't eat much during the day. I'm spending a fiver, so let's say i claim everyday for that fiver i am spending £1000 a year, to halve your example.

I am spending 1k a year, you are spending 2k. I have 1k more taxable income than you. That 1k, after tax, would leave me between 7 and 800, this makes me 7 or 800 pounds better off than you even if i pay more tax! Same with laptop, iphone, travel.

And the tax man is still winning, because you are spending more you are paying more VAT and also making another company more profit which they are also taxed on.

cells

caronoel wrote: »

£2k is a lot for annual accounts for a one man band - don't forget that all of this can be written off against tax too, which a regular employee cannot do.

Ever wonder who sits in the first class carriage on commuter trains? A large proportion of them could be contractors, who are getting a 40% tax subsidy on their train fares. This is in addition to work lunches, coffees, and an annual staff entertainment allowance.

All of these tax exemptions are unfair, and should go.

how is a £2k accountant cost an advantage over a £0 accountant cost aka employed person?

caronoel

NICHOLAS wrote: »

What point are you trying to make?

You spend £10 day on food when out working? I spend probably just less than a fiver, and £2 of that is on drinks, i don't eat much during the day. I'm spending a fiver, so let's say i claim everyday for that fiver i am spending £1000 a year, to halve your example.

I am spending 1k a year, you are spending 2k. I have 1k more taxable income than you. That 1k, after tax, would leave me between 7 and 800, this makes me 7 or 800 pounds better off than you even if i pay more tax! Same with laptop, iphone, travel.

And the tax man is still winning, because you are spending more you are paying more VAT and also making another company more profit which they are also taxed on.

You are not really making much sense.

The point is that I, as a regular private sector employee, cannot claim regular travel to and from home, workplace food and drink or iPhones etc against tax.

No one specific group should be able to do this, at the expense of everyone else.

To argue otherwise is nonsense.

Generali

caronoel wrote: »

You are not really making much sense.

The point is that I, as a regular private sector employee, cannot claim regular travel to and from home, workplace food and drink or iPhones etc against tax.

No one specific group should be able to do this, at the expense of everyone else.

To argue otherwise is nonsense.

How much does this cost? I suspect it's what we economists call 'very little'.

Who gives a toss about whether someone gets to claim the VAT back on their laptop so they can have an HD wink whilst working from home?

cells

Generali wrote: »

If you're going to get the deficit down you effectively have three choices:

1. Cut welfare spending
2. Cut health spending
3. The power of prayer

That's about it. Cut welfare by a lot, give a lot less money to the NHS or get yourself down to the local church/synagogue/temple/friends house/stone circle.

you could try and boost economic activity eg increase house building from 120k a year to 400k a year will add at least £60B to GDP and probably in the region of £30B to tax receipts. That a hell of a lot better than trying to up taxes or cut spending by £30B

Also you could go further and try to improve technology and productivity. for example i think robo cars are going to see a huge productivity boost so much so that they could be worth £100B to GDP £50B to tax take so encourage that or even set up national labs to work on it as was done with projects during or after ww2 where so much technology was invented and built by the national labs

caronoel

Generali wrote: »

How much does this cost?

I dont know - neither do you, but to give contractors an additional £10k TFA over and above 9-5 employees is inequitable. This is the key point.

NICHOLAS_2

caronoel wrote: »

You are not really making much sense.

The point is that I, as a regular private sector employee, cannot claim regular travel to and from home, workplace food and drink or iPhones etc against tax.

No one specific group should be able to do this, at the expense of everyone else.

To argue otherwise is nonsense.

Sorry, i thought you were saying you claimed that stuff.

I see, you are saying that self employed people / business people shouldn't be able to claim for that stuff....

hmmmm... I don't have an Iphone, but will be getting one soon. Why? Because it is the most feature packed with the most supported applications. In my line of business, an iphone will really help in various situations.

If i use it for work i can claim for all of it, or most of it, i'm not sure what the current rules are on smartphones for expenses. If i use it for personal and business, then i can only claim what is used for work percentage wise.

Although i have a 20 pound samsung i bought from tesco which will be my private phone, so yes, it can be fiddled in certain ways if you are a pee take like me.

But in general the rules are pretty fair.

Self employed people don't get holiday pay for 20+ days a year, maybe getting travel expenses helps offset against that?

Also, the food expenditure is a bit of a grey area. Some accountants seem to suggest that you should only claim for food when you are doing something that you wouldn't ordinarily do, like a business trip away.

Honestly, the allowances are nowhere near as sexy as they sound.

Generali

caronoel wrote: »

I dont know - neither do you, but to give contractors an additional £10k TFA over and above 9-5 employees is inequitable. This is the key point.

Not really, who cares? Life isn't fair.

cells

caronoel wrote: »

You are not really making much sense.

The point is that I, as a regular private sector employee, cannot claim regular travel to and from home, workplace food and drink or iPhones etc against tax.

No one specific group should be able to do this, at the expense of everyone else.

To argue otherwise is nonsense.

you seem to be arguing that costs can be claimed as an expense which you do not like

but in the real world we would rather have no costs rather than paying 80% of the costs and getting to claim 20% against profit

hence you seem to be annoyed that when someone pays £2k to their accountant they get to offset £400 of profit....not seeing that they have paid £2000 to their accountant

same as with your ludicrous train fare examples. people paying for first class because according to you they get 20% tax break. Well I can tell you most micro businesses will take the cheapest ticket because a £10 ticket costs a whole lot less than a £200 ticket 20% offset as cost or not......