July 2015 budget

[El Presidente]

You can pick and choose specific figures and rates, but regardless, what's wrong with simply merging NI and income tax?

Absolutely nothing, I'm with you 100%. Politicians have historically avoided it as they've had a habit of decreasing income tax rates to 'keep to their promises' whilst increasing NI to pay for it.

The only slight problem is in relation to pensioners and child earners because you only pay NI when between the ages of 16-65. There should be an easy way of dealing with that though.

 

[Yoda]

Having a national minimum wage of £9.00ph by 2020 is all well and good George, but by then it will have nearly surpassed my NHS wage with you keeping us at 1% per year, and will have outstrip the lowest two pay bands as well as most of my pay band.

 

[Steve.S]

Having a national minimum wage of £9.00ph by 2020 is all well and good George, but by then it will have nearly surpassed my NHS wage with you keeping us at 1% per year, and will have outstrip the lowest two pay bands as well as most of my pay band.

It's again the low paid are being hit, like you say he announced 1% pay rise for the next four years for public sector workers, can he explain how they will get this magic £9 an hour. The real losers in this budget are the people who are trying to earn a living on minimum wage or below. He is cutting their tax credits and any other benefits that allow them to have a bit of pride and try and earn a living. This budget will see a massive increase in the use of food banks and more pressure on charities to provide the shortfall in people's income.

 

[El Presidente]

NOT ENOUGH?

It's THEIR MONEY, how can you say it's not enough? "We're not taking enough of this person's money, better take more".

If you have a £1m property, you maybe paid £1.1m for the property including stamp duty, and probably earned about £1.85m gross salary. You've already paid nearly a million pounds tax. How on earth can you justify taking another £140,000.

Either that, or, you paid a lot less for it and someone else in a similar area bought a similar house to yours for £1m. That suddenly means your house is worth £1m. Why does that mean you can't give the house to the child? Why try to grab another £140,000? That's hard earned money, just for the crime of bestowing your home to a child.

GIVING YOUR HOUSE TO YOUR CHILD


We're not talking about tax evasion or some evil scheme. It's what humans have done for thousands of years.

1: Your figures are complete rot. You are ignoring house price inflation for a start. To be worth £1 million today a house bought 20 years ago in London would only have cost £160,000.

http://www.nationwide.co.uk/about/house-price-index/house-price-calculator#tab:HousePricecalculator

The majority of people who die and who have large estates are in their mid 80's, so saying that it was purchased 20 years ago is probably a conservative estimate of the acquisition date of the property and the capital gain they have benefited from.

Their 'children' would therefore be in their mid 50's-60's, so hardly about to become first time homeowners themselves. The 'children' can then sell the property and trouser £860,000 for their own retirement, and good luck to them.

 

[Triggaaar]

The tax I pay is based on my hard graft, those that whine about IHT have done nothing to contribute towards their financial windfall apart from have rich parents.

Those that whine about IHT are not normally the people that would get it, they are the people that have paid tax based on their hard graft, just like you, but want to help their children.

 

[El Presidente]

Those that whine about IHT are not normally the people that would get it, they are the people that have paid tax based on their hard graft, just like you, but want to help their children.

But as I've said above, these 'children' are not nippers, they are middle aged or older in the main. Life expectancy for the top 10% of earners of the population (who are more likely to have estates subject to IHT) is 85.7 for women and 82.7 for men.

They are also helping their children. £860,000 windfall on a £1 million property is help.

 

[Triggaaar]

The real losers in this budget are the people who are trying to earn a living on minimum wage or below. He is cutting their tax credits and any other benefits that allow them to have a bit of pride and try and earn a living.

Which changes are you referring to?

 

[Simster]

Those that whine about IHT are not normally the people that would get it, they are the people that have paid tax based on their hard graft, just like you, but want to help their children.

Something ridiculous like 99.5% of taxable inheritance is in the form of property, and in turn the vast majority of that property value is capital gain. Of course it should be taxed.

I see no reason at all why we should be reducing inheritance tax before reducing income tax or VAT. Income tax is a tax on money being earned as opposed to being given by an accident of birth. And VAT is a regressive tax that was increased only last term. Why not cut that? But perhaps more importantly, how can this be justified at a time when public services are being cut? I thought they were voted in on a pro-austerity ticket, not one that unnecessarily cuts possibly the most morally justifiable tax of them all.

 

[Triggaaar]

But as I've said above, these 'children' are not nippers, they are middle aged or older in the main. Life expectancy for the top 10% of earners of the population (who are more likely to have estates subject to IHT) is 85.7 for women and 82.7 for men.

They are also helping their children. £860,000 windfall on a £1 million property is help.

Firstly, you said the people that are whining are doing nothing for their money, and I'm just pointing out that's not correct.

So if one of your parents die, and then the other dies some years later, does the surviving parent get double the allowance to pass to their children?

 

[CorgiRegisteredFriend]

So the public sector are to receive just a 1% pay rise over the next four years. After a three year pay freeze and two years of 1% I thought it was time for something a bit better. How foolish of me. What kind of incentive would anyone get- nurse, teacher, police etc knowing that in four years time their pay increase will not rise above inflation and could well drop below. We will all lose out as we all depend on public services. I want decent nurses that are rewarded and thus happy in their job to look after me and my family if we become ill. I would want my children to be taught by professionals who again are at least in line with the pay rewards others services are getting. I fear we will all suffer from today's ill thought out decision. Any one know what the MP s are getting this year?

 

[Hampster Gull]

I wasn't suggesting they would be justified but you'll see the teachers out at the very least.

Ok, got you

 

[Hampster Gull]

So a 70p (nearly 11%) rise is "not good for all the workers"? Is that the best Labourites have got today?

It is getting silly. This budget is directionally great, incentivising work, increasing wages and decreasing tax for the lowest paid and removing distorting credits. And supporting the North, neglected for too long by Labour

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

So the public sector are to receive just a 1% pay rise over the next four years. After a three year pay freeze and two years of 1% I thought it was time for something a bit better. How foolish of me. What kind of incentive would anyone get- nurse, teacher, police etc knowing that in four years time their pay increase will not rise above inflation and could well drop below. We will all lose out as we all depend on public services. I want decent nurses that are rewarded and thus happy in their job to look after me and my family if we become ill. I would want my children to be taught by professionals who again are at least in line with the pay rewards others services are getting. I fear we will all suffer from today's ill thought out decision. Any one know what the MP s are getting this year?

MPs are due a 10% pay increase this year and more likely than not to increase their salary by £19k over the next 4 years.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

It is getting silly. This budget is directionally great, incentivising work, increasing wages and decreasing tax for the lowest paid and removing distorting credits. And supporting the North, neglected for too long by Labour

I feel sorry for the North because they were totally neglected between 1979 and 1997 too.

 

[nicko31]

Why the hike in inheritance tax to £1m? Benefits a few and costs a fortune, its a bit like their stamp duty giveaway a few months back. Totally not needed...

Seems to have bottled it on cuts with £20 billion disappearing, what happened to fixing the roof while the sun shines George?

Surplus by 2020, dream on...

 

[El Presidente]

So if one of your parents die, and then the other dies some years later, does the surviving parent get double the allowance to pass to their children?

Correct. The current threshold is £325,000 per person, but is transferred to the spouse upon death provided the estate is transferred, and therefore becomes £650,000 on the death of the second spouse.

If the public finances were such that the government was not borrowing money then frankly I wouldn't be bothered about the whole thing, but George Osborne originally claimed the deficit would be eliminated by 2015, he then revised this to 2018 , and today put it back to 2019.

It seems odd to give such large tax cuts to those inheriting wealth when this year the expected deficit is over £60 billion in this tax year.

FWIW I think he's done some good things today, two cheers for the non-dom changes (but he could have gone further), the living wage is a step in the right direction and the cuts were less aggressive than originally threatened.

 

[CorgiRegisteredFriend]

MPs are due a 10% pay increase this year and more likely than not to increase their salary by £19k over the next 4 years.

Quite sickening,

 

[Hampster Gull]

MPs are due a 10% pay increase this year and more likely than not to increase their salary by £19k over the next 4 years.

They are massivley underpaid so i welcome this

 

[nicko31]

MPs are due a 10% pay increase this year and more likely than not to increase their salary by £19k over the next 4 years.

You have to pay MP sensibly now they've tightened up on the expense, seems reasonable. Besides, its peanuts in the whole scheme of things, the country has far bigger financial issues

 

[Westdene Seagull]

Why the hike in inheritance tax to £1m? Benefits a few and costs a fortune, its a bit like their stamp duty giveaway a few months back. Totally not needed...

Seems to have bottled it on cuts with £20 billion disappearing, what happened to fixing the roof while the sun shines George?

Surplus by 2020, dream on...

I'm pretty sure I read that the stamp duty changes would keep the income to the government the same. It made sense to update such an insane way to collecting tax. Now it's tapered like income tax. It was absurd that if you paid £250,0001 for a property you were punished with a stamp duty rate across almost the whole value.