The budget

Visage · 21 Mar 2007 at 14:43

dirtydog said:
Why should fuel duty be subject to inflationary tax increases?

We don't increase VAT or other taxes each year with inflation; the rate stays the same.

Isnt it obvious?

VAT is expressed as a %age of the purchase price - as prices rices, so does the tax take - its inherently index linked.

Fuel duty is expressed in pennies per litre - if the cost of fuel doubles the effective tax rate halves. Thats why the duty has to be adjusted to changing prices.

Visage · 21 Mar 2007 at 14:44

Admiral Huddy said:
Rotty - Has he not scrapped the lower 10% tax band.. If that's the case were all going to a lot worse off.. despite the fall of the 22% to 20%?

No, because the 10% band is tiny in comparison to the 20/22% band.

Rotty · 21 Mar 2007 at 14:44

Admiral Huddy said:
Rotty - Has he not scrapped the lower 10% tax band.. If that's the case were all going to a lot worse off.. despite the fall of the 22% to 20%?

the 10% band is a very narrow one ( marginally above £2000 ) so most folks ( not all ) will recoup more than this loss when the 2% drop in the main rate is factored in

Visage · 21 Mar 2007 at 14:45

dirtydog said:
Yes we must avoid the nightmare scenario of lower house prices...

Politically it WOULD be a nightmare scenario.

Admiral Huddy · 21 Mar 2007 at 14:47

Rotty said:
the 10% band is a very narrow one ( marginally above £2000 ) so most folks ( not all ) will recoup more than this loss when the 2% drop in the main rate is factored in

It's all smoke and mirrors.. He's increased the NI threshold to that we'll be paying more NI on out earnings.

Rotty · 21 Mar 2007 at 14:48

Admiral Huddy said:
It's all smoke and mirrors.. He's increased the NI threshold to that we'll be paying more NI on out earnings.

the NI threshold increase only affects people on over £33k

dirtydog · 21 Mar 2007 at 14:49

Visage said:
Isnt it obvious?

VAT is expressed as a %age of the purchase price - as prices rices, so does the tax take - its inherently index linked.

Fuel duty is expressed in pennies per litre - if the cost of fuel doubles the effective tax rate halves. Thats why the duty has to be adjusted to changing prices.

fair enough. I'm not sure why it isn't just a fixed percentage though.

platypus · 21 Mar 2007 at 14:50

Hmm I'd missed this:

The amount of money you can pay into a cash Individual Savings Account (ISA) will rise from £3,000 to £3,600.

Only £600, but its still good news

Rotty · 21 Mar 2007 at 14:50

dirtydog said:
fair enough. I'm not sure why it isn't just a fixed percentage though.

to remove the effects of the volatilty of the oil market

platypus · 21 Mar 2007 at 14:52

dirtydog said:
Why should fuel duty be subject to inflationary tax increases?

It could have been another superfluous "green vote" winner.

Rotty said:
the NI threshold increase only affects people on over £33k

Great, so people that earn over £33k can get screwed and pay even more taxes? :rolleyes:

Rotty · 21 Mar 2007 at 14:53

platypus said:
It could have been another superfluous "green vote" winner.

Great, so people that earn over £33k can get screwed and pay even more taxes?

this I don't undertand , folks are quoting that people on over £38k will be worse off but I can;t see how as surely the increase in the 40% threshold more than offsets this

Admiral Huddy · 21 Mar 2007 at 14:53

He's increased NI to net the difference of incresing the tax treshold. Yet again, a change that effects the higher tax payer.. robbing those that have worked hard to get were they.

It all looks good but the net figures mean nothing.. It just a smoke screen.

Siliconslave · 21 Mar 2007 at 14:59

Asset sales will rise from £18bn to £36bn, with the sale of spectrum, a £6bn sale of the student loan book, and further financial and corporate sales at home and overseas.

what exactly does this mean? they are selling off the student loan rights to a private company? If so i'm pretty damn sure this CANNOT be a good thing

The lack of realistic help on the houseing market is farsical tbh - the "free" stamp duty is only going to benafit the rich who can aford to buy new "carbon free" homes. There is no help for first time buyers, such as an increase in the stamp duty base rate, or an increase in the second home duty to reduce buy to let

Admiral Huddy · 21 Mar 2007 at 15:00

Rotty said:
this I don't undertand , folks are quoting that people on over £38k will be worse off but I can;t see how as surely the increase in the 40% threshold more than offsets this

because he's effectively transferred the 10% tax which had a ceiling to NI which doesn't.. the net effect is the more you earn the worse off you'll be. Fine if you are behind the normal rate tax limit. Exceed it and he claws more cash back from the higher rate earners..

Visage · 21 Mar 2007 at 15:02

Siliconslave said:
what exactly does this mean? they are selling off the student loan rights to a private company? If so i'm pretty damn sure this CANNOT be a good thing

I wont have an effect on students who owe money - those loans were under a fixed agreement that cannot be altered. Whoever buys the debt can hardly turn around and say 'Actually we're doubling the interest rate'.

Rotty · 21 Mar 2007 at 15:03

Admiral Huddy said:
because he's effectively transferred the 10% tax which had a ceiling to NI which doesn't.. the net effect is the more you earn the worse off you'll be. Fine if you are behind the normal rate tax limit. Exceed it and he claws more cash back from the higher rate earners..

the NI ceiling has only increased ( about the same as the 40% tax threshold ) it hasn't been abolished

Spursboy · 21 Mar 2007 at 15:06

Not sure if this has been posted yet, but here is a fairly simple calculator to figure out how much you will gain/lose by this...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/business/budget_calc/html/budget_calculator.stm

Edit: Please note this does not take into account the changes slated to take effect in 2008.

dirtydog · 21 Mar 2007 at 15:07

Spursboy said:
Not sure if this has been posted yet, but here is a fairly simple calculator to figure out how much you will gain/lose by this...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/business/budget_calc/html/budget_calculator.stm

It doesn't take into account the income tax changes discussed above though.

Rotty · 21 Mar 2007 at 15:07

Spursboy said:
Not sure if this has been posted yet, but here is a fairly simple calculator to figure out how much you will gain/lose by this...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/business/budget_calc/html/budget_calculator.stm

that only covers next years changes, some big ones are after that

Admiral Huddy · 21 Mar 2007 at 15:09

Rotty said:
the NI ceiling has only increased ( about the same as the 40% tax threshold ) it hasn't been abolished

but the gap it much wider then the 10% that he's abolished... I'm trying to work it out but my pencil has broke