July 2015 budget

[Titanic]

"New compulsory National Living Wage starting at £7.20 next year for all aged over 25, to reach £9 an hour by 2020"

"new allowance to small businesses will allow then to pay 4 people on the National Living Wage while paying no National Insurance at all"

 

[Gullflyinghigh]

Are you going to oppose every reduction in state handouts?

They won the election, you know

I don't think winning means people have to like or support them, just that they're currently steering the ship.

 

[El Presidente]

If this will help extract more tax from people who run one-man-band businesses this has to be a good thing.

?

Not if you are one of those one man bands

 

[Bozza]

It will act as a disincentive for them to go to university, speak to them at uni open days and you'll realise that is their biggest concern.

The articles I've skimmed over in relation to this suggest you are wrong and that student surveys have revealed that they are most concerned about being able to cover their living costs whilst studying and this fear outweighs concerns about repaying loans.

I must admit, I had no idea grants were still in place until yesterday. I thought it was 100% loan financed now. The grants that are still in place look pretty meagre relative to what students now need to find to get through university in this age of £9,000 per year tuition fees.

 

[brightn'ove]

It's not a progressive policy, the aim is to discourage the peasantry from getting a degree.

Bang on. It's an absolute disgrace in my opinion. You can tart it up any which way, you are effectively punishing somebody purely because of circumstances outside of their control. Maintenance grants levelled this disparity, this WIDENS it.

I'm honestly shocked. Thank god I went to university in 2011 because otherwise I wouldn't even be considering it.

 

[El Presidente]

The articles I've skimmed over in relation to this suggest you are wrong and that student surveys have revealed that they are most concerned about being able to cover their living costs whilst studying and this fear outweighs concerns about repaying loans.

I must admit, I had no idea grants were still in place until yesterday. I thought it was 100% loan financed now. The grants that are still in place look pretty meagre relative to what students now need to find to get through university in this age of £9,000 per year tuition fees.

The grants are meagre and students and their families top them up through work and so on. The grants contributed towards living costs, not tuition fees.

It wasn't enough, but at least it was an acknowledgment of their circumstances.

 

[Bozza]

I think the intention is exactly that.

Not if you are one of those one man bands

It's a good thing in my eyes then. From what I know, it seems to have been the most ridiculous tax efficiency (and I'm being kind in my use of terminology here) going for a very, very long time.

Given your social conscience though, El Presidente, I can't imagine you'd have taken advantage of this at all, and you would pay yourself a fully taxable income, so this change would make no difference to you. Right?

 

[El Presidente]

It's a good thing in my eyes then. From what I know, it seems to have been the most ridiculous tax efficiency (and I'm being kind in my use of terminology here) going for a very, very long time.

Given your social conscience though, El Presidente, I can't imagine you'd have taken advantage of this at all, and you would pay yourself a fully taxable income, so this change would make no difference to you. Right?

All that will happen is that from now on when I get to £150,000 a year I'll stop working.

 

[Bozza]

All that will happen is that from now on when I get to £150,000 a year I'll stop working.

Nicely avoided.

 

[El Presidente]

It's a good thing in my eyes then. From what I know, it seems to have been the most ridiculous tax efficiency (and I'm being kind in my use of terminology here) going for a very, very long time.

Given your social conscience though, El Presidente, I can't imagine you'd have taken advantage of this at all, and you would pay yourself a fully taxable income, so this change would make no difference to you. Right?

Incorrect, the conservative government encouraged sole traders to incorporate themselves years ago and now they've put through a U-Turn.

They've done nothing to reduce the amount of red tape that small businesses such as mine have to deal with, especially with the changes to the Real Time system introduced in April.

 

[Bozza]

There's no reason why someone couldn't incorporate and still pay themselves a full income as any other employee of a, typically larger, company.

The reason people don't, of course, is to try and minimise their tax liability.

At which point, for me, they lose all right to ever bitch about anyone else's tax affairs.

 

[Kazenga <3]

The articles I've skimmed over in relation to this suggest you are wrong and that student surveys have revealed that they are most concerned about being able to cover their living costs whilst studying and this fear outweighs concerns about repaying loans.

I must admit, I had no idea grants were still in place until yesterday. I thought it was 100% loan financed now. The grants that are still in place look pretty meagre relative to what students now need to find to get through university in this age of £9,000 per year tuition fees.

As a current uni student I can vouch that for me and nearly everyone I know this is the case. Students are generally far more concerned about scraping enough money together in the here and now to cover food, rent and have some sort of social life.

What I will guiltily say though is that it's rather shortsighted- everyone is aware of the massive debt we are accruing but we tend to disregard it a little purely because paying it back seems so far away.

It could be said such a policy is taking advantage of the apathy and short-sightedness of students who just want to get to Uni and not think about the extortionate amount of money that may likely have to be paid back in a really not so distant future. All the while this apathy continues however it's a good economic policy, but will be interesting to see the results in 6 or 7 years time when a lot have to start paying back.

 

[El Presidente]

There's no reason why someone couldn't incorporate and still pay themselves a full incomes as any other employee of a, typically larger, company.

The reason people don't, of course, is to try and minimise their tax liability.

At which point, for me, they lose all right to ever bitch about anyone else's tax affairs.

If you are incentivised to do something, and you do it, what's the issue?

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.

 

[skipper734]

Done nothing for us poor old Pensioners.

 

[yxee]

If you are incentivised to do something, and you do it, what's the issue?

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.

What about the parents? They paid tax on their earnings. They should have the right to give it to whomever they want. Working hard for your children is a natural ambition.

 

[El Presidente]

What about the parents? They paid tax on their earnings. They should have the right to give it to whomever they want. Working hard for your children is a natural ambition.

You're implying the kids get nothing. Under the current system those who have a £1m property give £860,000 of it to the kids. You're saying that's not enough.

 

[Bozza]

If you are incentivised to do something, and you do it, what's the issue?

I don't have any issue. I just find it interesting that many of those who might be outspoken about the tax affairs of others are quietly and happily doing all they can to minimise their own tax liabilities.

I don't think I've ever met a one-man-band type who has, voluntarily, paid himself a full income (and no or minimal dividends) because they believed it right to pay their fair share of tax on what they earn, rather than try to minimise their tax outgoings in every way possible. It seems a massive coincidence that these folk often have wives or partners who "takes care of the admin" for them too, typically for as much salary as can be paid before income tax becomes due.

Hypocrisy much?

 

[Kuipers Supporters Club]

University changes for me are very welcome. I have a degree, and a Masters (Postgrad) but what I do is the 'icing on the cake' of the economy.

The backbone, the real strength and heart of our economy is the small business owner and their employees.

It's not really a debt though (in terms of loans and grants) , you only pay it back when you start earning a decent wage.

Why should a twenty year old plumber who works 8-6, five days a week subsidise through his hard work another rich young person to go to University.

Also a compulsory living wage - which is fantastic news.

 

[yxee]

You're implying the kids get nothing. Under the current system those who have a £1m property give £860,000 of it to the kids. You're saying that's not enough.

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.

 

[Titanic]

Done nothing for us poor old Pensioners.

You have the triple-lock gold-plated increase, guaranteed.