The Gordon Brown 20% Tax Con.

penrhyn

Its in the news a lot today, as the 10% tax band disappears.
I won't be worse of personally as I'll be getting the winter fuel payment for the first time this year which will balance out the extra tax I'm paying. swings and roundabouts!
Still its good to know that our taxes helped Prescott (other MPs were also caught with their snouts in the trough) fight of the pangs of hunger to the tune of £4000.

Biggles

penrhyn wrote: »

Its in the news a lot today, as the 10% tax band disappears.
I won't be worse of personally as I'll be getting the winter fuel payment for the first time this year which will balance out the extra tax I'm paying. swings and roundabouts!

It's a bit late for a petition, though maybe it's been around since scrapping the band was announced last year.

But yes, I agree with the 'swings and roundabouts' comment. To be honest, I can't remember a single budget in my lifetime which left me significantly better or worse off, it's always been pretty much a non-event for me (especially now I'm retired, though it often meant extra work for me when I was employed (eg payroll changes etc)).

margaretclare

It seems that MPs have at last woken up to this anomaly and are making their voices heard.

The people who will be affected by it are low-paid workers and also retired people under 65. I'm not personally affected by it, but that doesn't mean I don't feel for those who are.

Over the last few years I've been paying less and less income tax, as the age-related personal allowances have risen. Our council tax, however, has risen by 10% in the same period of time. We were paying just over £10 a month in 2000. We're now paying just over £100, the biggest item in our household budget.

Optimist

Hands up those who have written to their MP to express their disgust ?

http://www.writetothem.com/

Dunwunderin

:mad:

The Ultimate Stealth Tax!
Announce one year in advance and then hide it with a 2 p drop in basic rate.

Gordon introduced 10% rate 8 years to help the lower paid and has now scrapped again by the back door!

Are these people cunning or just incompotent?

This is a real vote loser in next month's elections. Everybody will have noticed their reduced take-home pay packet by then.

A day of reckoning is at hand!

Errata

We shouldn't be surprised. Brown is the bloke that thought an increase of 75p a week was good enough for older pensioners.

margaretclare

Did I hear right - BBC News at 7 pm? MPs had challenged Brown on this, saying it would affect lower-paid workers without children, especially those on less than £20K a year.

Brown's response: child benefit is going up and so are winter fuel allowances so they won't be so badly-hit.

Just how are those supposed to be of help to low-paid workers without children - presumably workers not yet retired therefore not qualifying for fuel allowances, and no children therefore no child benefit?

Errata

Margaret, that's a question that's most definitely above Brown's paygrade !
And I would imagine the subtext to Brown's response to his back benchers was "clear off"........or words to that effect.

Biggles

margaretclare wrote: »

Our council tax, however, has risen by 10% in the same period of time. We were paying just over £10 a month in 2000. We're now paying just over £100, the biggest item in our household budget.

Eh?

;-)

catz1ct

Terrible i'm gonna be effected by this