Reccession ..... Calm Down & Carry On

[beorhthelm]

Sorry but that sounds like a comfortably off person ignoring what is actually happening ....

er no, just critiquing the hyperbole used in the arguments, which just polarises people behind neat political wings not actually addressing anything.

No, what is better is closing the tax gap of £70 bn tax evasion, £25 bn of tax avoidance and £25 bn of unpaid, not giving tax cuts to millionaires, promoting investment particularly in infrastructure and housing, cutting pointless expenditure on unwinnable wars and out of date weapons systems, and generating growth through employment.

all good stuff. now what we need is a politcal movement or party with these policies that everyone could rally around. bit of a vacuum there.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

No, what is better is closing the tax gap of £70 bn tax evasion, £25 bn of tax avoidance and £25 bn of unpaid, not giving tax cuts to millionaires, promoting investment particularly in infrastructure and housing, cutting pointless expenditure on unwinnable wars and out of date weapons systems, and generating growth through employment.

Add invest in the next generation and encourage investment in manufacturing. Also encourage companies to make something which is not utter shit and will fall apart within a week. We also need to re-educate most of the population and ween them off short termism. Basically we need real jobs and a long term view.

 

[SK1NT]

No mate. They put a clause in their mortgage offer letters saying their svr would never be more than 2% above BBR. At the time BBR was over 5% so they have screwed themselves.

Yea this is exactly what i thought US... However f***ing typical my mortgage never tied themselves to anything and hiked up the SVR to 5%

 

[Dirk Gently]

No, what is better is closing the tax gap of £70 bn tax evasion, £25 bn of tax avoidance and £25 bn of unpaid, not giving tax cuts to millionaires, promoting investment particularly in infrastructure and housing, cutting pointless expenditure on unwinnable wars and out of date weapons systems, and generating growth through employment.

Even more so not cutting the numbers of HMRC inspectors as part of the public sector cuts. The cuts imposed were so untargeted and broad-based, without proper planning, that they meant that the numbers of HMRC inspectors were cut - even though each one of them was proven to reduce the level of tax evasion by about 18 times their individual employment cost.

But when you apply cuts on the basis of political doctrine and without any proper planning this is what you're bound to end up with ....

 

[Dandyman]

Even more so not cutting the numbers of HMRC inspectors as part of the public sector cuts. The cuts imposed were so untargeted and broad-based, without proper planning, that they meant that the numbers of HMRC inspectors were cut - even though each one of them was proven to reduce the level of tax evasion by about 18 times their individual employment cost.

But when you apply cuts on the basis of political doctrine and without any proper planning this is what you're bound to end up with ....

Agree, 100%.

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

I did not hear about the job cleaning an office. Hey ho another job above my capabilities. The Pizza delivery job wanted a CV ?! I didn't get that either. The thing is, this just totally destroys your self worth and self esteem that is the worst thing about it all. I empathise with anyone going through this shit at the moment.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

I did not hear about the job cleaning an office. Hey ho another job above my capabilities. The Pizza delivery job wanted a CV ?! I didn't get that either. The thing is, this just totally destroys your self worth and self esteem that is the worst thing about it all. I empathise with anyone going through this shit at the moment.

US - good luck !!! While not in exactly the same boat my partner has just lost her job and that leaves us in a very dodgy financial situation. Anyone who seriously believes that the recession is over or that jobs of any kind are easy to come by is living in cloud cuckoo land !

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

US - good luck !!! While not in exactly the same boat my partner has just lost her job and that leaves us in a very dodgy financial situation. Anyone who seriously believes that the recession is over or that jobs of any kind are easy to come by is living in cloud cuckoo land !

Thanks mate. I have applied for a couple of hundred jobs and got back diddly shit. I am a capable bloke and to think you are on the scrapheap at 49 is very hard to take especially when you cannot even get a job delivering pizza's, flowers, cleaning offices or shelf stacking. It f***ing destroys your soul and self worth.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Even more so not cutting the numbers of HMRC inspectors as part of the public sector cuts. The cuts imposed were so untargeted and broad-based, without proper planning, that they meant that the numbers of HMRC inspectors were cut - even though each one of them was proven to reduce the level of tax evasion by about 18 times their individual employment cost.

But when you apply cuts on the basis of political doctrine and without any proper planning this is what you're bound to end up with ....

You raise a very interesting point about HMRC inspectors. The numbers have been cut. But, one thing the recession seems to be doing is creating more self-employed people. The numbers have risen significantly over the past 4 years and we need more, not less, inspectors to keep these people in check and ensure they're paying what they're supposed to be paying. Utterly stupid and a license to fiddle your taxes.

 

[Tim Over Whelmed]

HMRC announced 2,000 extra inspectors and investigators recently, didn't they?

 

[Dirk Gently]

Have checked up on some facts and figures here.

The average "take" for a senior tax inspector (salary £50,000) is approx £1.5m. the average for a lower-level inspector (salary £25,000) is £300,000.

Last year their numbers were cut by 33%, and it has been announced that they will have to lose another 25% of staff to meet governement "targets.

Those government targets are clearly based just on headcount and on cost - without taking any other factors, like income, into account.

The National Audit Office report http://www.nao.org.uk/publications/1011/hmrc_accounts_2009-10.aspx says : "The Department has not made enough progress in reducing the backlog of 18.2 million income tax cases where there is potentially overpaid or underpaid tax. It also needs to improve its collection rate for tax credits debt, which is substantially lower than that for tax debts."

So with a backlog of 18.2 million cases, and an estimated £26.1bn owed in back PAYE - tax expert Richard Murphy says : "They haven't enough people to get on the phone and knock on the door to get the money in." - and numbers continue being cut. And there's a multiplier effect, too - research shows that every £1 detected deters another £1 in potential fraud.

Shambles!