The Labour Manifesto ruled out increasing taxes on working people,specifying VAT, Income Tax and National Insurance. There is now a gloss being placed on this. Apparently that meant in the case of National Insurance there would be no increase in employee NI but there could be in Employers NI. Labour say that is a fair interpretation of the promise. Their critics think it would be breaking the promise.
Clearly employer NI is a tax on jobs. To pay it a company would need to put prices up and hope to pass on the increase, or employ fewer people or put up wages less to offset some of cost. All that sounds a bit like an NI tax on working people. What do you think?
There are rumours that the Chancellor may put up motor fuel duty. Working people tend to burn more fuel than the retired or those staying at home. There is the journey to and from work. For many self employed there are the visits to customers. From painters to carpenters, from plumbers to electricians there will be fuel for Ā the vans they need to take tools and equipment. Thatās another tax on working people, though not covered by a specific Manifesto exemption. It is inflationary, is an unwise tax on working but not a broken promise.
There are rumours of adverse tax changes for saving to a pension fund, or taking money out of one on retirement. These must be Income tax rises affecting working people. It is a worker doing the saving and a worker sorting out transition to retirement. That must be ruled out on any reasonable interpretation of the Manifesto.
There are rumours of changes to CGT. Many people incurring CGT bills on homes, businesses or shares they are selling will be working people. They are clearly not covered by the Manifesto exemption. If however a working person was made to pay Income tax rates on gains that arguably is an Income tax rise for a working person.
October 18, 2024
Good morning.
Would this be the same critics that were very silent when the Tory’s failed to keep their promises to reduce MASS IMMIGRATION ?
Not having a go at you, Sir John but we all know that manifesto promises might as well be written on toilet paper.
Which as we all know, is inflationary and, as I read elsewhere, 50 % of government expenditure is on salaries. So the cost of the State will increase plus, interest rates.
Fine ! I ride a bike and lease a hybrid.
Whatever this government is rumoured to do is can do. People are will problably find ways around it, reduce use of it or just go elsewhere.
Ratchel Reeves can budget all she wants. In the end it all comes down to our own individual budgets which the majority of people can manage and balance need against the ability to pay. Something I might add past governments of all hues have never really managed.
October 18, 2024
Your scepticism is well warranted. Mrs T’s words ringing, āThe problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.ā So we know where we going; and going there fast thanks to un-restrained Milibrain.
With unchallenged Net Zero, the spending by this government will set off to the stratosphere, when they remove ‘capital spending’ from the restrictions on total government debt. That most of the assets Milibrain wants to buy come from abroad seems not to be an issue.
Prepare yourself and family for power cuts, high interest rates and public sector strikes. We’re going back to the 70’s, but without the great music.
October 18, 2024
āThe problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peopleās money.ā
That is alas not the only problem. Socialism and Communism are pure evil and leads to millions of deaths from executions, famine, deaths through forced labour, deportation, starvation, imprisonment, genocides and crimes against humanity.
October 18, 2024
Tory voters don’t want The Tory Party focusing on how rubbish Labour are (we all know that).
What Tory voters want to know: what is the Tory Party going to do to get back into power?
October 18, 2024
14 years and they did not even try to keep their promises on immigration, tax levels, crime, public service levels..
October 18, 2024
Almost every tax is a tax on working people. Even if you tax only retired people then they have less to pay for carers, house maintenance, gardeners, to pass on to family, to invest… many working people all losing out directly. Plus it throttles the tax base.
October 18, 2024
It’s a Liebour government, they lie like the previous administration of 14 years. No matter what taxes they put up they will affect working people
They are the ones that generate the wealth.
I would bet the rules on pensions won’t affect the public sector or two tier no idea Kiers special pension arrangement.
I hope the bond market collapses so the government is forced into making some real cuts in public spending.
October 18, 2024
Will Ms Reeves comment on her PM’s special exemption on paying pension tax, and want the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) job to stop benefiting in future?
October 18, 2024
When the public sector is on defined benefit pensions, then, of course, changes won’t affect them personally; they will affect the people who pay them, that is, the other workers, council tax payers, power users, and road users. We should all be in the same sort of pensions even if the employer contributes 28% (such as those in the public sector) at least people will value the contribution made and realise that decisions that reduce pensioners outcomes (defined contribution pensions) will affect them too, not have some opt out like Starmer did in his last job.
October 18, 2024
Let’s be sensible government job is to balance the books and if they can’t then they have to make up the deficit by either increasing taxes borrowing or by cutting back on spending – election promises aside everyone running a household budget will understand this. Next thing is that Labour is probably going to be in government for at least another ten years or so so no point in complaining – in a way they speak the same language as the Conservatives – “inflation, interest rates, productivity and growth, unemployment statistics benefits” etc – we hear it all the time – so much to do so let’s get on with it
I don’t think too many working people will be concerned with having to pay CGT on shares? – maybe selling the odd property OK but not shares
October 18, 2024
Halfway, in many ways CGT is a voluntary tax.
I won’t be selling anything if Thieves increases it. She doesn’t understand the Laffer curve despite doing the cleaning at the BoE.
Our habits change to mitigate the stupidity of our rulers. BTW if you think this excrement show will get a second term, I’ll have some of what you’re drinking.
October 18, 2024
It will only take one term for the electorate to forget the Tories left office with nothing in the public sector that works, and vote again for the sweet lies.
October 18, 2024
To be fair, I had fully expected a second or more term for Labour. Now that the sheeple are getting the blunt reality of their activities like a slap in the face, Reform will rise to challenge, pensioners that survive cold winters and reduced spending will never vote for them again, those who had been prudent (sorry) will regret it and wish they had enjoyed a more lavish life earlier rather than inflate Labour’s thumb-screw taxation in their old age.
Others who wished to run a business and create some wealth and jobs will probably live and work in another country by the time the next GE comes up.
October 18, 2024
Well except the āTheft of Landlordsā act forces many to sell up this from Socialist Gove and mad evem worse by Labour.
Scrapping non-dom tax regime āwill cost Britain Ā£6.5bnā
Abolishing tax status is expected to cost the UK in lost GDP and jobs think tank says.
Scrapping Britainās non-dom tax regime would cost the country Ā£6.5bn by 2035, a think tank has warned.
Plans to abolish the tax status would wipe out 23,000 jobs over the next six years through lost investment and consumption, according to a report by the Adam Smith Institute (ASI).
Well done socialists Jeremy Hunt & Sunak on this and now Reeves and Starmer! Then we have the net zero insanity too.
They really do all (both parties) seem determined to wreck the tax base and the economy at every turn.
October 18, 2024
I donāt understand why more isnāt made of what Hunt pointed out ( as shown in Hansard) that Chancellor R KNEW state of financesā¦as revealed in the FT ( July 2024)
I wish I could share your optimism.
As far as I know every political nightmare has come true since about 1990ā¦so why not the nightmare of a second, third, fourth Labour term?
October 18, 2024
Well said Ian, I hope your right about the short term for Labour ( they really are miss named )
October 18, 2024
Halfway
Agree with you, not much the ordinary person can do other than not vote for this lot at the next election.
There are not enough Multi millionaires in the Country to fund government spending, so the burden always falls on the masses, no matter who is in power.
The problem is if you tax people too much you destroy their willingness to work, save, invest., or support your own family’s sons and daughters.
What is the point of saving out of already taxed income if the returns are going to be taxed, and eventually on death your estate is going to be taxed.
You may as well spend what you have in your own lifetime, and enjoy it whilst you can, no matter if it is on foreign cars, foreign holidays, foreign goods for your house, Foreign Cruises.
Thus all the money then goes abroad, because we make next to nothing here to buy any more.
The really rich people can leave, but those with less wealth have less choice, and the Government know it.
October 18, 2024
āLabour will be in government for another 10 yearsā š¤£š did you mean āmonthsā?
October 18, 2024
Narrow-minded people who only think of themselves never spot the real dangers. If their boss doesn’t sell to an M&A specialist or larger company to grow the business they work in, they could stagnate and their pay freeze.
If people don’t invest in shares to save money to buy properties instead of renting, then businesses won’t get the finances to grow.
October 18, 2024
First define working people. For me it includes everyone who works and at whatever level of reward. However by definition it cannot include those who have worked but are now retired. For Labour I suspect they think in much narrower ways, confining it to the unionised strata of those who work. Excluding those who create work for others through enterprises large and small.
Labour have first created themselves an escape clause, by finding themselves a get out “Black Hole” , which naturally they cannot define. They have proved themselves self serving, in rewarding their union masters. Additionally they are still riddled with class envy and use education as a tool. Penalise the very best with more tax, and where they have total responsibility, in Wales for instance, achieve a 20% illiteracy rate in primary education.
Labour have had 14 years in opposition. They came to power on 20% of those who voted, as a result of the other 80% voting to show their disgust or not voting at all to show their disgust. They arrived with no grand plan to fix anything, so have ad hoc’ed their way through their first 100 days. All we know is where Starmer and wife get their clothes. I feel more than certain that their delayed budget will not address the country’s problems, but just create more. Tgw only positive is that it might hasten their departure.
October 18, 2024
20% of those who could vote circa 1/3 of those who did vote.
October 18, 2024
Statistice, percentages, make of it what you wish, but I would describe it as the greatest democratic distortion of all time.
October 18, 2024
Its a bit like Kemi, I’ll tell you may policy position after you elect me …..Labour promises spoken before election not quite the same as written in manifesto ….but close enough, that no one will notice
October 18, 2024
WRT your definition of working and retired – I retired early from full time employment but ran businesses, was a full time carer and volunteer and drew on a pension and savings.
By your definition I wasn’t “working” and paying taxes, I was just not as an employee.
“Retired” people still work – child care, social services volunteers, NHS and community drivers, citizens advice volunteers, technical and other support for the elderly and others etc.
I suppose I could really stop “working” as could many “retired”, go overseas with my capital and tax payments and leave the public sector to pick up the load on caring and voluntary service – good luck with that while watching the significant increases in costs to the public sector and taxpayer.
October 19, 2024
Precisely. I reached state pension age a few weeks ago and I am still working part-time and paying Income Tax. Amongst other things I do which “contribute to society” two or three times a year I volunteer for the YHA and do a few days/week’s free decorating and gardening for them.
Since I’m now retired and am not classed as a working person, I’ll be giving up the little part-time job in the New Year. I’d rather do my free “contributing to society” voluntary work than pay tax for these charlatans to squander on their lunatic Net Zero obsession and divisive social engineering agenda.
October 18, 2024
Surely workers transitioning to pension and retirement will be offset by the shiny new AD bill?
October 18, 2024
AD offsetting? Only partially. (And not at all if doctors ultimately end up having to be incentivised for the number of assisted goals they are involved with, in the same way that they are currently incentivised to prescribe certain life-time drugs.)
More importantly, the government has falling tax receipts from falling UK tobacco sales to contend with. And falling tax receipts from falling petrol and diesel sales. Some of this money will need to be recouped from working people…
October 18, 2024
What is an AD bill?
October 18, 2024
Assisted dying, I thought.
October 18, 2024
Anti-Discrimination?
The “Equality laws” have turned into laws that protect the rights of certain minorities and patently discriminate against certain majorities like “useless white men” would be RAF pilots. This especially in certain areas. Physics and Engineering for example where only about 10-20% are women so if you set 50% targets you have huge anti-male discrimination and end up with less competent people on balance too. These people designing your bridges, aircraft, nuclear reactors, tower blocks, cars…
October 18, 2024
Also the absurd comparisom by the courts of very different jobs some mainly male (like refuse collection and warehouse work) and other largely female like dinner āladiesā or shop workers that has bankrupted Birmingham. Why moron gave the courts the right ti make such judgements? What does some judge know about these very different jobs? Supply and demand for workers is the way to make the judgement. What next compare the pay of a male premier league footballer with that of a female England hockey goal keeper.
It is total lunacy like almost everything else done by (or not revoked by) Blair, Brown, Cameron, May, Boris, Sunak, Starmerā¦
October 18, 2024
YES! LL and we have seen a lot of the Horlics some of them have made! Like our latest Nuclear plant in Somerset. Why did they go for the” French” experiment instead of the small nuclear that have proven record of powering our Submarines over many years?
The vast majority of MP’ s and ministers are brainless fools!
October 18, 2024
The Labour party’s tax proposals are very likely to be a tax on ‘working people’ but there are 2 bodies I blame for this.
One is the Labour Party for being evasive and sneaky about its definition of a ‘working person’ in its manifesto and during the election campaign. A ‘working person’ is such a loose classification that it captures almost everyone therefore, by this definition, almost no-one should have their taxes increased. All of Labour’s proposals are a direct tax on a ‘working person’ (CGT, pension fund cash in) or an indirect tax on a ‘working person’ (employer NI) and thus are breaches of their manifesto commitments.
The other body I blame is the media. It was frustrating to watch the interviews of the Labour Party leadership and their officials who always got away with never clarifying what a ‘working person’ is. The media are paid to ensure the manifestos are clarified but none of them did this effectively. Where were the Brian Waldens, the Jeremy Paxmans, the Robin Days, the Andrew Neils who were all responsible and very effective journalists? No modern journalist could hold a candle to these men. Instead, with modern journalism, we watch a chat between the journalist and the politician and quite frankly it’s a waste of time.
So thanks to an evasive and sneaky Labour Party and a deficient media we are still left guessing what a ‘working person’ is and the tax consequences. This situation is a violation of Democracy.
October 19, 2024
Yes, Paul, it’s a waste of time, as you say. The media are paid to ensure that nothing is clarified.
October 18, 2024
Will our tax money be used to fund the 100 Labourites going to the US to campaign for the Democrats?
I didnāt think that sort of things was allowed.
October 18, 2024
Britain is not the only country in Europe facing a large funding gap. France is heading for an austerity budget which will impose tax rises on working people. At the same time the French government’s spending on defence has seen a big boost. Not on the defence of France, but on subsidies, valued at 3bn Euros, given to Ukraine to fight Russia. A few months back, Bloomberg said France was struggling to manage that level of payment to Kiev. We have given Ukraine almost four times that amount, so how surprising is it that we have a financial black hole? It’s time to admit we can’t afford to pay for another country’s war.
October 18, 2024
All recent governments and oppositions have lied (“been economical with the truth”). It is integral to politics nowadays. Some are whoppers (Iraq weapons of mass destruction; we’ll stop illegal immigration etc); this one is minor.
It’s going to be tough for the working class and pensioners of modest means. The black economy will expand as ordinary people try to evade extra taxes. Tax advisors will get richer as the rich try to avoid extra taxes.
October 18, 2024
The Labour Manifesto is an exercise in sophistry. It says very little in order to cover up it’s intended damaging measures. It has tripped itself up over Employer NI. It looks as though it has also tripped itself up over its “growth” ambitions as billions is withdrawn from capital markets in anticipation of yet more taxes on savings and investment. If the forecast or advocated taxes on savings and investment materialise then any hope of the UK pulling itself up by the bootstraps to achieve much needed growth will be dead on arrival.
October 18, 2024
Labour and the redistributive thieves need more money for their increased expenditure. The simplest answer to this would ne to spend less. Lower benefits, higher productivity and less foreign aid not to mention reducing any payment to illegal immigrants (change the law and house them in dormitories not hotels and deport them speedily then no payments at all to those who stay as they entered illegally).
There is no need to search around for new ways to tax people which will be avoided by the targets (how much inheritance tax was paid the the Duke of Westminster’s Ā£4 billion estate).
Labour needs the money and eventually that has to be raised from the middle because no one else will pay it.
October 18, 2024
Every tax is a tax on working people. The issue is that the State has been extended too much; is taking too much in tax and is wasting far too much of it. The latest extension of the State is to break up England into the kingdoms of Alfred the Great’s time and install yet another layer of governance, costing Ā£billions a year.
I’m really not interested in playing “Labour are going to be worse than we were.”
The Treasury and OBR are demanding tax increases and, if the Treacherous Tories had been re-elected, we’d still be getting tax increases because “the Government” doesn’t make the decision: they follow instructions.
The Tax Poem
Tax his land, Tax his bed, Tax the table at which he’s fed.
Tax his tractor, Tax his mule, Teach him taxes are the rule.
Tax his work, Tax his pay, He works for peanuts anyway!
Tax his cow, Tax his goat, Tax his pants, Tax his coat. Tax his ties, Tax his shirt, Tax his work, Tax his dirt.
Tax his tobacco, Tax his drink, Tax him if he tries to think.
Tax his cigars, Tax his beers, If he cries tax his tears.
Tax his car, Tax his gas, Find other ways to tax his ass.
Tax all he has, Then let him know, That you won’t be done till he has no dough.
When he screams and hollers, Then tax him some more, Tax him till he’s good and sore.
Then tax his coffin, Tax his grave, Tax the sod in which he’s laid.
Put these words Upon his tomb, ‘Taxes drove me to my doom…’
When he’s gone, Do not relax, Its time to apply the inheritance tax.
October 18, 2024
It was the conservatives in government that set the tone and paved the way for a continuation of their policy by Labour. āIām a low tax conservativeā said Mr Sunak, before hiking corporation tax from 19% to 25%.
October 18, 2024
Increased employer’s NI will indeed be passed on to ordinary people in higher costs, but only where the customer has no choice. For the public sector, it just means government claws back some more of the money they put in. For industry, it makes British less competitive against foreign competition. For any employer it makes him less willing to employ more staff and more particularly for the sole trader to become an employer at all – as if there wasn’t already ample disincentive the government is preparing to add to in other ways.
If you want growth you need to make employment more attractive, but this government haven’t got a Scooby.
October 18, 2024
You have to bear in mind that when Starmer was asked during the election campaign what a working person meant he said it was someone in work who was also on benefits!
October 18, 2024
Sounds like Labour weren’t being honest in the run-up to the general election ……….. who’d a thought it !
October 18, 2024
Can it really be true that certain schools are enforcing āBlue Nose Daysā.
No heating on for the entire day ā¦and no extra woolies etc allowed.
To get the poor kids used to the idea of being a future worker whose wages will be so severely taxed that there will be none left over to buy warmth?
Or maybe a nudge in the direction of no more schools?
As we wing our way back to 1780 or thereabouts.
October 18, 2024
We are governed by politicians who are puppets of globalists. They have no real regard for their constituents whom they purport to represent.
October 18, 2024
When the Labour Party made its bold assertion that there would be no tax increase on working people, they missed out only two words needed to ensure their commitment was correct and true.
The two missing words were, Public Sector. As in, ‘there will be no tax increase on Public Sector workers’.
October 18, 2024
Surely one of the most counter productive election manifesto pledges ever made, was not to increase income tax, VAT or NHI. If extra revenue is needed, these between them account for the lion’s share of tax revenue, and therefore raising one or more of them is much the easiest way to get more money, and, very importantly, much the least complicated, and also hardest to avoid.
From the tax payers’ viewpoint it is transparent and obvious, and also easiest to reduce when the need for more revenue is over. But that is probably why politicians do not like it, and are happy to pledge it will not happen.
October 18, 2024
The whole tax raising shenanigans from labour and their deceit around manifesto promises demonstrates just how immoral they are. They hide their true intentions until they get elected, then they punish us all for not voting for them.
With a totally ineffective opposition it seems that labour can get away with anything. If they really do want to ruin the economic hopes of the country then taxing working people and generally setting taxes sky high is the way to do it!
We can all see though, considering how much of our money is going abroad or otherwise being wasted, that there is no justification for tax increases of any kind. The financial black hole is a fabrication, and no sensible government would even think about raising taxes when we need economic stimulation.
Clearly labour’s policies are driven by spite and netzero – which shows how unfit Starmer is to sit in #10.
How much taxes go up in the budget will depend on what labour think they can get away with. The time to kick up a stink is now and not after the budget is published.
October 19, 2024
Keir-Ching! is delivering the UN’s and WEF’s Agenda 2030.
We are witnessing the planned “levelling-down” of the UK in fast-track practice. That’s why industries and so much money are being exported; and so many poor, low wage legal immigrants plus even more freeloading foreign criminals/migrants are being imported so quickly.
October 18, 2024
Labours definition of a ‘working person’ is restricted to those that are unionised, paying union fees and funding the Labour Party. No one else in the Country works
A Two Tier Leader of a Two Tier Party, who states the ‘Labour must take control of the People’
October 18, 2024
We have in Parliament 650 MPs of which just 15 are considered Cabinet members therefore the Government. So, 635 MPs have the job of questioning Government to get answers.
8 Political Parties are represented in the UK Parliament all backed up with party machinery, PR and otherwise. So, we have the gift of 7 highly organized machines with access to the media to keep the Government in check.
Every day just āOne Partyā spouts about a āblack-holeā the media picks up on it and causes this āblack holeā statement to reverberate around the media and chatter-arty, seemingly without question. Not a single MP hits the airwaves saying āprove itā not a single Party organized media machine is hitting the Media saying āprove itā so what appears to be a lie to all sane people gets embedded as indisputable truth.
If MPs, Political Groupings other than those actually in Government are never challenged ā why do they even exist? For every time the Governments says āblack holeā at the national media level there should be 7 alternative view media releases challenging that view.
Even what used to be referred to as Journalists no longer exist, no investigation, no proof, just print what the Government PR Release states and nothing else ā welcome to 1984
October 18, 2024
Sir John, I know you and others have challenge the āblack holeā premise but you donāt and others are not supported by the same level Media and PR machinery as MPs and Political Grouping. All the opposition is away from Westminster and left floundering in the breeze. So as not part of the Politics, the real day to day politics and not supported by those that are, its just light background noise.
October 18, 2024
From the Media
“Ms Reeves is understood to be planning the biggest tax raid in history in her Budget, which is to be held on October 30.”
“She has concluded there is a Ā£40 billion black hole in the public finances and intends to fill as much as 90 per cent of this gap with tax increases instead of cutting spending, after ruling out a return to Tory āausterityā.”
The un-challenged lie is growing, because it can as their is no Party or MP wishing to challenge it by asking for ‘Proof’
October 18, 2024
Each government has around 100 junior ministers and bag carriers who are also bound by collective responsibility. If they say anything against policy, they invariably lose their job and any chance of moving up the greasy pole.
October 18, 2024
I have no idea whether the situation Starmer inherited is actually anywhere near as bad as Cameron was faced with. I suspect it wasn’t, but I have better things to do with my time than research the subject. However, the essential difference is that a Labour government is always committed to increasing spending whereas a proper Conservative one would not be.
Reeves increased spending by more than Ā£10bn in her first 8 weeks in office, and every announcement since has racheted up spending even more. It’s still a massive leap to Ā£40bn, though !
I see the IMF have already issued their first warning to Starmer and Reeves. Is that a record ?How long after being elected was it before they fired their first shot across the bow of the Callaghan / Healey government ?
I am old enough to remember how that ended and it wasn’t pretty !
October 18, 2024
CS : “Itās still a massive leap to Ā£40bn, though !”
This will be just the start of Red Ed’s Net Zero spending.
October 18, 2024
For every person that saves, tries to provide for the future. That is one person that the State will NOT have to provide for.
But, that in not the Labour, the WEF Socialist way. The āgreat resetā demands control and control comes from enforcing dependency on the State for your next intake of breath.
October 18, 2024
Are Pensioners considered to be Working People?
October 18, 2024
āNot increasing taxes on working peopleā ?
Tax people that can no longer (because of age etc) can respond, go to work, earn more, adjust life style and so on. So, punish those that created a future, based on the lies and promises of Government. Renege, renege, renege.
Some of the thoughts from Government appear to have already been moderated as it was found that State employees are more likely to be the āhigh paidā recipients of this punitive punishment. Letās never forget the Director of Public Prosecutions and Head of the Crown Prosecution Service, Mr TTK himself was by Law moved outside of any future Government grab on his vast pension entitlement and pot. So, whatever the Chancellor proposes her boss will be by Law be immune from its effects. The Minions? ā they will be met with pain.
And some people think TwoTierKier was a made up Monika
It leads labour the Party that fights the Country and its People with no other option than enforced euthanasia of those that tried to prepare for resilience in later life
October 18, 2024
Labourās promise of not increasing tax on working folk looks like being broken. The Chancellorās ādiscoveryā of a Ā£22nn āblack holeā in finances is dubious as itās clear the information concerning government finance was available to her when in Opposition! They are taking us for fools and it wonāt wash. There will be an almighty backlash if this much heralded budget adversely affects working people. Even if taxes hit employers the additional cost is bound to be passed on. Where is growth coming from? We are being lied to by a bunch of deceptive hypocrites led by chameon in chief Kier Starmer. I donāt trust them!
October 18, 2024
Nothing changes between Governments except the faces. As Sir Graham Brady states in his book āKingmakerā āpolitics makes liars of us allā. Most Politicians arenāt truly bothered about tax rises, they have a good salary, good pension and of course expenses. Employer N.I. contributions are like Shoplifting, they just add extra costs to the working and the honest. This Government is so bad after 100+ days we should bring back Truss!!
October 18, 2024
If Labour introduced a 10% āemployerā income tax and it came off income just like employee income tax then itās basically an employee income tax, just from a different column.
An elephant is still an elephant if it takes a step to the left.
October 18, 2024
So as a small business start-up, before I make a profit, I have to spend thousands on business rates, VAT, environment tax on all/every bills, 13.8% tax per employee salary and rent ā¦.so circa 50% of initial costs are TAX ā¦.both parties are the same, ‘somke nā mirrors’ ā¦.didnāt you read the small print in our manifesto
October 18, 2024
This government is accelerating the decline that the previous government presided over.
They will drive the economy into the ground and then claim that eu membership (in one form or another) will be our salvation.
The positive thing to do is to campaign for MPs and prospective MPs who are in the centre or centre-right, whether they are in Reform or they are Conservative or Unionists.
There is no point in looking for formal pacts between parties especially as the Conservatives have been so badly infiltrated by socialists and weirdos.
Like-minded politicians are perfectly capable of forming their own blocs. Sir John, you would be a good match-maker and organiser in this regard.
October 18, 2024
It might be best for the Tory party if Reeves proceeded with all the possible threats the Telegraph has reported daily for weeks. Yes people will pay the price for the next 4.5 years but it will swiftly remind them what a Labour government does.
The Telegraph has suggested everything from:
Raising Employers NI (Boris did this by 1.25% reduced again by Truss, the Tories voted for it 319 to 248 ironic when you think most of those 248 would have been labour and libdems he said it was specifically for social care so expect the same, Liz was sacked off because she refused to follow instructions. I know you were one of only five ministers John to speak out and rebel about this! Starmer also spoke out against it!),
NI on pensions going into the savings schemes,
Tax reductions on higher rate tax to 30%,
Increasing the inheritance tax rate, (first reported by the BBC)
Stopping money being passed on to family tax free,
Altering inheritance tax reliefs and exemptions,
Stop exempting farmland from taxes,
They claim inheritance taxes are only paid by 4% of estates. However, we are now told that 25% of pension households have millionaires, so that number is about to explode.
As well as some Labour advisors suggesting:
Dropping the VAT registration amount,
Creating more council tax bands and readjusting everyone with big/expensive homes paying double, just not in band A homes.
October 18, 2024
There was no pledge about not misleading working people when making manifesto promises though, was there?
I would accept the gloss on NI contributions by employers not being a tax on working people as it is not a direct levy paid by them on their wages, although as you show, it is a tax on jobs and working people will pay a price in due course.
Surely people have not forgotten Chancellor Brown kept the manifesto promise of no income tax rises only through the introduction of very many stealth taxes.
October 18, 2024
Why not reduce government spending to clear any black hole? Undoubtedly, the first duty of any new government is to review all government spending to see what can be saved. But it seems Labour have no interest in reducing spending in any area, and Ed Milliband is spending it like a man with no arms!
At his current spending rate on the myth of Net Zero, Ed will bankrupt the Labour government on his own within months. Then the Chancellor will have a real black hole to deal with, working by candlelight, as we will have power cuts!
One gets the impression that the PM and most of his cabinet have never grown up and are like students, playing at the serious business of government without a clue about what to do!
October 18, 2024
Didnāt Keir Starmer define āworking peopleā as being those in receipt of āin work benefitsā, and without savings? In other words, everyone else is fair game, to him.
October 18, 2024
48 criminals arrived in the UK yesterday from the safe country of France ….we’re stopping the boats, just not the people, we never said we’d stop the people !
October 19, 2024
we do stop the boats and transfer the illegals to a more comfortable and seaworthy craft for the rest of the trip.
October 19, 2024
But we also tow their boat onto our shores ….so we’re not even stopping the boats, we’re assisting the boats
October 18, 2024
Shares, funds, ITs, ETFs in an ISA or a SIPP are presently not subjected to CGT.
People can presently put up to Ā£20k/year into an ISA and up to Ā£60k into a SIPP. Around 12 m people have an ISA, with 2/3 a Cash ISA
gov.uk 19/09/2024 āCommentary for annual savings statistics, September 2024ā.
āUK savings account statistics 2024ā, 16/01/2024, money.co.uk.
R.Reeves seems to have rejected the idea of increasing the CGT on the sale of a second property.
Will R.Reeves decide to tax operations within the ISA/SIPP and/or to decrease furthermore the Ā£3000 threshold of CGT for shares sold outside these tax wrappers ( that would affect a much smaller amount of people)? I donāt think that outside the Express/Sun/Mail/Telegraph anybody believes it.
Conclusion: A tempest in a tea cup?
October 18, 2024
We shall see on Budget day hefner.
Current press releases from the government say the budget will need to create Ā£40 billion more taxes from us.
Your examples wouldn’t create anything like that number if implemented.
October 19, 2024
Sam, Any calculations you can share with us that would prove your point?
October 19, 2024
She sees pension funds as low hanging fruit, so don’t be surprised if she does mess with them in one way or another.
October 18, 2024
If the Opposition publicised and people knew public expenditure is nearly Ā£50,000 per household per year even Labour wouldn’t be raising taxes, especially if an Opposition Party was promising big cuts in public expenditure and big cuts in taxes, especially Income Tax. Unfortunately Farage, Badenoch and Jenrick all seem to lack the will to really change things (and following her colossal failure to remove EU regulations from our law Badenoch proves she would actually do nothing significant and is even worse than the other two).