The official Budget day thread

[nicko31]

Completely bottled it on fuel duty should have been extra 5p, no brainer. Easy money on cheap fuel

 

[DTES]

a noble alternative, however the state benefit is unfunded, there is no pot. its in desperate need of reform to be remotely affordable in few decades time, so this looks like a good approach.

Are the state payments into the Lifetime ISA funded? I missed that bit of the announcement if so.

 

[Bob!]

Business rates: new thresold for small business rate relief is £15,000 - From April next year 600k small businesses will pay no business rates.

With a revaluation of rateable values due at the same time.

 

[5ways]

Don't know why fruit juice is not included in the sugar tax. Fruit juice, pasteurised and strained is terrible for you.

 

[ROSM]

No. Always the leader of the oppo.

It's the worst gig of the year to respond on something you've theoretically only just heard. The spads will have been scribbling and passing notes like nobodies business through that once they got a copy.

I'm not a corbyn fan hut he did really well. Probably helped by the view of the Childrens' society

 

[Titanic]

It's the worst gig of the year to respond on something you've theoretically only just heard. The spads will have been scribbling and passing notes like nobodies business through that once they got a copy.

I'm not a corbyn fan hut he did really well. Probably helped by the view of the Childrens' society

Corbyn just produced a pre-prepared party political rant... nothing about any of the budget measures. Seen worse, but nobody will remember a single thing he said.

 

[Moshe Gariani]

Six years of failure.

Unfairness at its core.

Institute for Fiscal Studies - "The poorest have suffered the greatest proportionate losses".

Same old Tories.

 

[Ernest]

Andrew Neill already dismantling the budget on Twitter, as usual the grinning cretin not capable of running a wallpaper shop let alone a National economy

 

[JC Footy Genius]

Fastest growing economy in the G7 2013/14/15, record levels of employment and lowest level of unemployment since 1974 .. so not all bad then.

 

[TomandJerry]

Other Budget announcements include:

Growth forecast cut for the next five years and £3.5bn in extra public spending cuts by 2020

Fuel duty frozen for the sixth year

2% increase in tax on cigarettes, with 3% on rolling tobacco, from 6pm, but beer and cider duty will be frozen as will the levy on whisky and other spirits

Plans for a longer school day in England

The rate at which workers start paying top rate tax is to be raised from £42,385 to £45,000, with the tax-free personal raised to £11,500 and corporation tax to be cut to 17% by April 2020

On savings, the ISA limit will be increased to £20,000 a year for all savers, and lifetime ISAs will be introduced for young people

An extra £700m for flood defences - to be paid with a 0.5% percentage point increase on the tax on insurance premiums

The higher rate of Capital Gains Tax is being cut from 28% to 20%

The £530m raised by a tax on the sugar content of soft drinks - the equivalent of about 18-24p per litre, the government says - would be spent on primary school sports, the chancellor said.

Read them all here:

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/mar/16/budget-2016-at-a-glance-key-points

 

[Pavilionaire]

As an accountant it always interests me to see the reaction to the Budget. If Osborne had decided to cut the top rate of tax by 1% it would have been headline news "a tax cut for millionaires" etc etc. Yet he's slashed Capital Gains Tax by 8% which, for the main part, is a tax paid by the wealthy on second homes, share options and holders of investment portfolios.

Not only was such a radical cut totally unexpected but it is also unnecessary - announced at the same time as cuts to welfare for the disabled.

It also shows a complete lack of joined-up thinking. Changes to tax relief on buy to let mortgage interest will force thousands of landlords to shed property that used to make money but will soon (due to the tax changes) be rendered loss-making. By slashing CGT the idiot has just reduced the tax revenue that he would otherwise have received on these sales when they inevitably come.

He really is a clueless tw*t.

He jokes about abolishing the Lib Dems whilst simultaneously airbrushing them from goverment since 2010, now claiming credit for the successful popular policy of raising the annual Personal Allowance, a policy he didn't want but was forced to reluctantly accept by Cameron as a coalition concession.

Osborne is arguably the biggest Tory c*nt since Thatcher and I pray that he doesn't become their next leader.

 

[theboybilly]

As an accountant it always interests me to see the reaction to the Budget. If Osborne had decided to cut the top rate of tax by 1% it would have been headline news "a tax cut for millionaires" etc etc. Yet he's slashed Capital Gains Tax by 8% which, for the main part, is a tax paid by the wealthy on second homes, share options and holders of investment portfolios.

Not only was such a radical cut totally unexpected but it is also unnecessary - announced at the same time as cuts to welfare for the disabled.

It also shows a complete lack of joined-up thinking. Changes to tax relief on buy to let mortgage interest will force thousands of landlords to shed property that used to make money but will soon (due to the tax changes) be rendered loss-making. By slashing CGT the idiot has just reduced the tax revenue that he would otherwise have received on these sales when they inevitably come.

He really is a clueless tw*t.

He jokes about abolishing the Lib Dems whilst simultaneously airbrushing them from goverment since 2010, now claiming credit for the successful popular policy of raising the annual Personal Allowance, a policy he didn't want but was forced to reluctantly accept by Cameron as a coalition concession.

Osborne is arguably the biggest Tory c*nt since Thatcher and I pray that he doesn't become their next leader.

When were the cuts to welfare announced? I watched all of George's speech and must've missed it. For what it's worth I thought it was a very good budget....and pubs and small businesses did very well out of it. The gentle mocking of the LibDem minister was very funny too. Corbyn however just isn't up to the job.

 

[Ernest]

When were the cuts to welfare announced? I watched all of George's speech and must've missed it. For what it's worth I thought it was a very good budget....and pubs and small businesses did very well out of it. The gentle mocking of the LibDem minister was very funny too. Corbyn however just isn't up to the job.

You haven't a clue

 

[beorhthelm]

As an accountant it always interests me to see the reaction to the Budget. If Osborne had decided to cut the top rate of tax by 1% it would have been headline news "a tax cut for millionaires" etc etc. Yet he's slashed Capital Gains Tax by 8% which, for the main part, is a tax paid by the wealthy on second homes, share options and holders of investment portfolios.

lack of coherence is definatly something that i see (bottled any reform of welfare benefits for an easy 3-4bn savings, then go after disability allowances for 1.3bn?), however all the punditry has been noting theres changes to the rules on how CGT applies, which means big business ends up with a 8bn bill to foot from 2019, even with the rate cuts.

 

[Driver8]

As an accountant it always interests me to see the reaction to the Budget. If Osborne had decided to cut the top rate of tax by 1% it would have been headline news "a tax cut for millionaires" etc etc. Yet he's slashed Capital Gains Tax by 8% which, for the main part, is a tax paid by the wealthy on second homes, share options and holders of investment portfolios.

Not only was such a radical cut totally unexpected but it is also unnecessary - announced at the same time as cuts to welfare for the disabled.

It also shows a complete lack of joined-up thinking. Changes to tax relief on buy to let mortgage interest will force thousands of landlords to shed property that used to make money but will soon (due to the tax changes) be rendered loss-making. By slashing CGT the idiot has just reduced the tax revenue that he would otherwise have received on these sales when they inevitably come.

He really is a clueless tw*t.

He jokes about abolishing the Lib Dems whilst simultaneously airbrushing them from goverment since 2010, now claiming credit for the successful popular policy of raising the annual Personal Allowance, a policy he didn't want but was forced to reluctantly accept by Cameron as a coalition concession.

Osborne is arguably the biggest Tory c*nt since Thatcher and I pray that he doesn't become their next leader.

The cut in CGT doesn't apply to property. That stays at the old rates

 

[wellquickwoody]

Labour keep coming up with some cobbled together figure that 80% of the cuts/taxes are targeted at women. Now this is absolutely total boxxocks as that would mean only 20% are targeted at men. This is the disengenuous crap that turns people away from politics, and all sides are guilty of it. The reality is that none of the cuts or taxes are aimed exclusively at either sex but their effects are a byproduct of life in general. Spin, spin and more spin just to attempt to score a goal that should be disallowed anyway, politicians really can be knobs.

 

[BLOCK F]

The cut in CGT doesn't apply to property. That stays at the old rates

Get up to speed Mr.Pavilionaire Accountant, before you have your rant and call the Chancellor a clueless tw-t!
.

 

[Pavilionaire]

When were the cuts to welfare announced? I watched all of George's speech and must've missed it. For what it's worth I thought it was a very good budget....and pubs and small businesses did very well out of it. The gentle mocking of the LibDem minister was very funny too. Corbyn however just isn't up to the job.

At the time of the Autumn Statement the Tories looked set to have to make big welfare cuts, which they didn't want to do. Then the OBR presented a positive forecast and the Tories pronounced they wouldn't have to make those cuts because tax revenues were expected to be higher and would fill the gap.

Well - surprise, surprise - the forecasts are wrong, the growth estimate was over-optimistic and some cuts will now have to be made. Except that won't stop him slashing CGT so his mates can sell their share options and trouser a few thousand extra while those on disability benefit worry whether they can make ends meet.

And "gentle mocking" of the Lib Dems. Did you hear the contempt in his voice? He is claiming personal credit for a policy that has been successful that isn't his that he didn't even want and badging it "doing things the Tory way". It was LIB DEM policy, and now he mocks them in a full House of Commons with the world's media trained on him, saying how he'd like to abolishing them. I bet the creep would LOVE that, getting rid of a party that put the lower paid top of the agenda when they got into power.

Does he not appreciate the importance of political debate, the importance to democracy of having strong opposition parties, parties with ideas that are different?

It would have been nice to think that 5 years of coalition would at least have made him more respectful of the other parties. In fact, quite the opposite is true. He's actually Hitleresque in many ways - deluded, proud, vain, takes credit for other people's work and ideas etc whilst harbouring intent to wipe out any opposition or dissenters.

 

[Pavilionaire]

Get up to speed Mr.Pavilionaire Accountant, before you have your rant and call the Chancellor a clueless tw-t!
.

Still applies to commercial property. Share options the order of the day then. No NI. Offshore please. Hurrah!

I probably should have looked at the detail a bit more - granted - but part of my afternoon has been spent reviewing a load of PAYE tax code notices for 2016/17 that have been spat out by HMRC today IN ERROR - most of them being duplicates of codes issued last week. Probably an early glitch triggered by the impending switch to personal tax accounts from next month.

 

[Bold Seagull]

At the time of the Autumn Statement the Tories looked set to have to make big welfare cuts, which they didn't want to do. Then the OBR presented a positive forecast and the Tories pronounced they wouldn't have to make those cuts because tax revenues were expected to be higher and would fill the gap.

Well - surprise, surprise - the forecasts are wrong, the growth estimate was over-optimistic and some cuts will now have to be made. Except that won't stop him slashing CGT so his mates can sell their share options and trouser a few thousand extra while those on disability benefit worry whether they can make ends meet.

And "gentle mocking" of the Lib Dems. Did you hear the contempt in his voice? He is claiming personal credit for a policy that has been successful that isn't his that he didn't even want and badging it "doing things the Tory way". It was LIB DEM policy, and now he mocks them in a full House of Commons with the world's media trained on him, saying how he'd like to abolishing them. I bet the creep would LOVE that, getting rid of a party that put the lower paid top of the agenda when they got into power.

Does he not appreciate the importance of political debate, the importance to democracy of having strong opposition parties, parties with ideas that are different?

It would have been nice to think that 5 years of coalition would at least have made him more respectful of the other parties. In fact, quite the opposite is true. He's actually Hitleresque in many ways - deluded, proud, vain, takes credit for other people's work and ideas etc whilst harbouring intent to wipe out any opposition or dissenters.

The thing is, none of it comes as any surprise.