[Politics] Are baby boomers taxed enough?

[Berty23]

You don’t need to be a mathematician to understand the impact of falling birth rate like this. These are the future workers. People can’t afford kids. And those who have them are less educated which is also something my boomer dad says is a problem “wrong people having kids”

Fertility in England and Wales at lowest recorded level for women in all education groups: Oxford research | University of Oxford

Fertility in England and Wales fell to its lowest recorded level between 2010-20 – for women across all educational groups - according to a new study today in Population Studies, from John Ermisch Emeritus Professor from Oxford’s Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science.

www.ox.ac.uk

All this will mean we need more immigrants to pay for pensions.

 

[BBassic]

Tax the mega-rich. Scrap the Royal Family. Close tax loopholes. Throw the Tories in a ditch.

This is basically it.

Instead of the young blaming the old and the old telling the young how hard they had it when they were the young everyone, of every age, should be working together to sort out the actual problem.

The people with so much money they're building literal f***ing rocket ships for fun or offering each other out for fights. They're the problem.

And the Tories of course.

 

[Berty23]

And the expense of marriage is also putting people off. More kids born out of wedlock. Another issue linked to house prices. https://ifstudies.org/blog/marriage-is-disappearing-from-britain

 

[Official Old Man]

I'm now practically retired but, being self employed, it's hard to let go of a business I've built up over the years. Indeed it's my kids taking over but I'm still doing a lot. After many years of earning a good wage to suddenly go down to £7K a year is worrying. I did start a thread a while back asking if the pension should be taxed.
I reckon I'm good for 20 more years and should get £140K out of the state which may be a bit more than my accountant told me to put into the state fund. But my VAT payments are way way higher so I don't feel guilty. I've a bus pass but still drive, I do get £200 of prescriptions free a year.

 

[The Clamp]

Humans have basically priced ourselves out of existence.

It’s evolution baaaaaby!

 

[WATFORD zero]

The reality is that governments have not taxed at the required levels for nearly 50 years.
The shortfall is now becoming apparent across the economy.

Government needs to address this one way or the other.
Citizens of my age and older have benefited from the tax policies of the last half century and many may be better placed to take a higher percentage of the tax burden now required.

Age is not the issue, but wealth is.
Whoever has it should probably expect to see higher tax impacts over the next 20 years.

Are you seriously suggesting that wealth would be a better basis of taxation than age

 

[The Clamp]

I don’t get the beef with Boomer’s wealth.

For starters, it’s going to come down the line anyway. Most people have houses because of their boomer parents.

I thank my Dad and Gran for making hay while the sun shone. Made my life a heck of a lot easier.


What do people expect them to have done. Write to HMRC and requested to pay more tax?

 

[Uh_huh_him]

While we have a Royal Family that leach off the working people of the U.K. to the tune of 100’s of millions a year, a PM who spends tens of thousands a month on private jets to get to meetings in the next town, and corporations walking through tax loopholes the size of an elephant, we shouldn’t be thinking of taxing anyone any more than we already do.

And certainly not based on their date of birth.

Whilst I agree with your political slant, the Royal family are only symbolically an issue.
The actual figures involved are fairly irrelevant.

However the idea that the elite need to be looked after and aren't responsible for the financial issues facing the rest of the population, needs to be reversed.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

I don’t get the beef with Boomer’s wealth.

For starters, it’s going to come down the line anyway. Most people have houses because of their boomer parents.

I thank my Dad and Gran for making hay while the sun shone. Made my life a heck of a lot easier.


What do people expect them to have done. Write to HMRC and requested to pay more tax?

Mainly because our generations will live longer and will be forced to release their equity in their homes to pay for their medical care at the end of their life.

 

[A mex eyecan]

Tax the mega-rich. Scrap the Royal Family. Close tax loopholes. Throw the Tories in a ditch.

at what value does society deem what’s mega rich?

 

[BBassic]

I don’t get the beef with Boomer’s wealth.

For starters, it’s going to come down the line anyway. Most people have houses because of their boomer parents.

I thank my Dad and Gran for making hay while the sun shone. Made my life a heck of a lot easier.


What do people expect them to have done. Write to HMRC and requested to pay more tax?

I'm 38 and I've no problem with people benefitting from the fruits of their labour, unless that labour is exploiting the labour of people being paid a subsistence wage whilst you swan about in a rocket.

Like yourself, I'm quite lucky in that my parents did well for themselves in the 90s through hard work and, when the time comes, the result of that work will find its way into my and my brothers hands. If I'm honest, I don't know how comfortable I am with this. I have friends - hard working, good people - who won't have this luck. That's not their fault, it's not their parent's fault, it's not my fault. It's just the luck of it, I guess.

And I think this is what winds people up about 'boomers'. There's a level of sneering from some of them. Some of them. That meme of "Oh if you youngsters stopped eating so much avocado toast you'd be rich by now" exists for a reason.

There's this idea that if people just grind away and put the hours in then they'll reap the rewards when, the sad reality is, that just isn't the case for a lot of people. And when those people question why that is they're called lazy. Which is frankly bollocks.

As I say, I've no axe to grind with boomers or Gen X or Z or Y or whoever else but I do have an axe to grind with people using this stuff to create wedge issues to divert our attention away from the actual problems. Which we can see happening, in real time, in this topic.

 

[The Clamp]

at what value does society deem what’s mega rich?

Secret volcano lairs and pet sharks?

 

[Bozza]

Having just responded to a post report which seemed to suggest the user undertaking some sort of legal action against NSC for the term "the pitchforks are coming", I'd just like to highlight that, in this context, it was first coined by multi-billionaire Nick Hanauer, when he wrote about wealth inequality.

Should you be interested, you can read it here:

The Pitchforks Are Coming… For Us Plutocrats

A memo for my fellow filthy rich who live in our gated bubble worlds: Wake up, people. It won’t last.

www.politico.com

...or if video is more your bag you can watch the TED talk:



I'm not a great fan of @Mustafa II - he was, intentionally by my reckoning, a massive pain in the arse under his previous II-less username, and then just came back as if nothing had happened - no recognition of what he'd done before, no humility and no apology.

But he clearly wasn't advocating violence in his use of the term.

Anyway, happy Friday everyone. Carry on.

 

[A mex eyecan]

Secret volcano lairs and pet sharks?

would seem a starting point. Seriously though in cash and assets what is mega rich? 100k, 500, 1m, 10m?

 

[nicko31]

The reality is that governments have not taxed at the required levels for nearly 50 years.
The shortfall is now becoming apparent across the economy.

Government needs to address this one way or the other.
Citizens of my age and older have benefited from the tax policies of the last half century and many may be better placed to take a higher percentage of the tax burden now required.

Age is not the issue, but wealth is.
Whoever has it should probably expect to see higher tax impacts over the next 20 years.

And wealth can be conserved for the rich. For example, there is now no cap on the size of pension pots and these are exempt from IHT. This is wealth that has never been taxed in the first place.

 

[A mex eyecan]

wont somebody please spare a thought for all of the tax advice accountants out there? If we close every tax loophole they won’t be any need for them and they will all be out of work and in unemployment!

 

[LamieRobertson]

I don’t get the beef with Boomer’s wealth.

For starters, it’s going to come down the line anyway. Most people have houses because of their boomer parents.

I thank my Dad and Gran for making hay while the sun shone. Made my life a heck of a lot easier.


What do people expect them to have done. Write to HMRC and requested to pay more tax?

“Boomers wealth” ……none here lol

Brought up in a council house ….both sets of grandparents likewise …I’m in a ‘shared ownership house which I’ll never own more than 25% of and probably will have to leave if I reach my eighties and rent a tent

My Mum bless her always reminded me that if they hadn’t had me they were going to buy a bungalow for £750 lol

Do I begrudge people their wealth ..NOPE

 

[chip]

And wealth can be conserved for the rich. For example, there is now no cap on the size of pension pots and these are exempt from IHT. This is wealth that has never been taxed in the first place.

And will have benefitted from tax relief on contributions.

 

[JackB247]

This country just doesn't work for young people - my girlfriend and I (both mid-20s) are seriously considering emigrating.

 

[Perfidious Albion]

I thought taxation was based on wealth, not age . Frankly, what has age got to do with it? I live on a pension, supported by a modest company pension and we get by but have no spare money . What is there to tax?