The Budget

[TheHeathens]

..... so the 50% tax rate has been reduced because those potentially affected were so successful at tax avoidance that it only raised a fraction of what it would have had they not engaged in such behaviour .....

Two words.... Laffer Curve

[TheHeathens]

Those who earn over £1,000,000 have been handed £50,000; lower rate tax payers have been handed a couple of hundred pounds - fair?

Here's a question for you Mike and I am playing devil's advocate a little:

Why should there be a percentage rate of tax in the first place? Are wealthier people a bigger drain on the State than poorer people (research suggests not)?

Is the fairest method not to tax everyone the same amount as a monetary figure?

[dominion]

Is anything fair Mike.

I tend to agree with the Noel asking why we have variable rates of tax anyway.

You can see where we have cut offs where you jump from one band to another that people will try and find natural ways to avoid jumping in to the higher band, such as happens with the levels of stamp duty.

I have some German colleagues from the Munich area, who moved to Switzerland to avoid over 20% of tax.

Flat rate, 40% on everything over £10K and abolish NI and we'd all be happy I reckon and those that earn more pay more.

I'm not voting for you Witton! Based on the payslip that's in front of me for this month, I'd be a fair bit worse off under your tax regime! :thunbdown:

[dominion]

Here's a question for you Mike and I am playing devil's advocate a little:

Why should there be a percentage rate of tax in the first place? Are wealthier people a bigger drain on the State than poorer people (research suggests not)?

Is the fairest method not to tax everyone the same amount as a monetary figure?

You mean like the oh so popular Poll Tax??? (Which I agreed with in principle.)

[Danbert Nocurry]

The chancellors of the exchequer always makes me laugh on budget day because of the way that they always do that stupid pose holding their briefcase aloft.

It's like some kind of victory stance........

......before they reveal tons of cuts in services and price rises left right and centre.

[Dynamo Dan]

It was a pretty unremarkable budget really. Osborne is very conservative with a small c. When you consider his rhetoric he should have abolished the higher rate and slashed corporation tax, but he didn't because he hasn't got the bottle.

I'm pleased because I earn sod all and the new threshold will make a difference to me. The wealthy will be pleased, as long as their not buying a house they get a large tax cut. Pensioners will be pulling their hair out again!

[TheHeathens]

You mean like the oh so popular Poll Tax??? (Which I agreed with in principle.)

I suppose so. Unpopular doesn't necessarily make it unfair though, does it?

The fairest method is charging people for what they use but that's not practical so surely second best is to charge everyone the same.

[dominion]

So I guess the question is, how much would each individual have to pay to cover the total income derived from Tax and NI ? And is that a fair sum?

[Muddy Retriever]

It was a pretty unremarkable budget really. Osborne is very conservative with a small c. When you consider his rhetoric he should have abolished the higher rate and slashed corporation tax, but he didn't because he hasn't got the bottle.

I don't think its that he hasn't got the bottle. The Tories are in coalition with the LibDems so Osborne can't just do whatever he wants. There will have been a lot of horsetrading with the end result being the compromise that we saw today. You're right to say it was an unremarkable budget, not least because we all knew pretty much what was going to be in it beforehand.

[Dynamo Dan]

I don't think its that he hasn't got the bottle. The Tories are in coalition with the LibDems so Osborne can't just do whatever he wants. There will have been a lot of horsetrading with the end result being the compromise that we saw today. You're right to say it was an unremarkable budget, not least because we all knew pretty much what was going to be in it beforehand.

I disagree Osborne just isn't radical enough. Even if they had a majority the Tories wouldn't have backed up their rhetoric with real action.

As for the Lib Dems, they didn't stand in the way of the NHS reforms, I doubt they would've objected to a more radical budget. They're the political equilvilent of a battered wife, who won't leave her husband because she thinks he loves her really. In few years she'll be on the kitchen floor with a knife in her back.....