Well….I would suggest that if you had no money or were struggling, your main spending would be on essentials which have no or lower vat levels. If you’ve got some cash to splash then you are paying more tax.

Its wot the lefties want….. isn’t it?

I don’t the poster was suggesting the income be derived from people that just spend their money on clothes and a shelter. I think the idea is to encourage growth across the retail sector – that a VAT cut would generate more spending from the pocket of folks that spend money on stuff. Things are a bit cheaper – more spending power etc.

Also given there is VAT on utilities (albeit 5%) – I think we’re past the non- essentials that VAT was possibly designed for.

so it seems that we re universally appauled by the tories for raising vat to record levels and yet we pay no vat on food,childrens clothes, stamps ,sports facilities, gambling including bingo, admission charges to museums etc, antiques, anything that charity shops sell, funerals, any equipment for the disabled, nicotene patches and all stop smoking products, tampons, prescription services, any education, water, sewage utilities, parking, repairs to aircraft?, helicopters.., books/magazines, helicopters , all helmets , we only pay 5% on gas and electric..

so what it boils down to is we object at paying an extra £1000 on our 40k audis and a sapping £87.50 on our 3500 new bike and yet want the govt to spend more on the nhs and reduce student fees..

VAT. As posted earlier we have a lower VAT rate than most of our EU neighbours, we also have more exemptions and no VAT on food eg France (5.5%), Germany (7%). VAT on food in Denmark is 25% fyi

VAT or sales tax is widely used around the world. It’s an excellent and fair tax paid by all. The exemptions we have on rent, food, children’s clothes and reduced rates for utilities mean it has very little impact on the less well off. VAT is paid by visitors to the UK and by businesses. If VAT was abolished other personal taxes would have to go through the roof.

TMH, yes indeed a bold move committting to keep tax and NI on hold. However it further distances the Tories from Labour, just think forward to 2020 and the Tories can challenge Labour to pass/refresh the same legislation post the election.

Taxes went up under Labour FYI

this nationalisation/centralisation does make me sad.

Especially when it’s accompanied by rhetoric about how they are doing the exact opposite.

is it any wonder no-one votes in local elections? they are not in charge of anything any more. they only have adoption, social care and bins.

I did read that if all the smith commission things went through Scotland would have the same level of responsibly as a small french city. whoop e do.

Think about if we were still 15% and Europe at 20% . All those lovely migrants who would come to our shores as they ‘get more for their money’ invading our shores and then demand monies by other means from government handouts. Quite happy to stick with 20% to balance the European books. And anyway, Labour lost by a majority as people believed they couldn’t balance books with monies and even Mr Ballsup lost his constituency seat, which is a double blow for the lefties. Merkyll would have eaten Millibland for breakfast.

is it any wonder no-one votes in local elections? they are not in charge of anything any more. they only have adoption, social care and bins.

I did read that if all the smith commission things went through Scotland would have the same level of responsibly as a small french city. whoop e do.
Have you ever met any local counselors or attended a meeting ? These are the people that aren’t nearly good enough to be MPs and we know what we think of them. I wouldn’t put them in charge of anything.

That article you read re: French cities must be wrong, towns do have a degree of flexibility of local business taxes for example but France is very very bureaucratic with huge amounts of rules and regulations set centrally. They have no power to set income taxes.

“we pay no vat on…gambling including bingo”

Iirc there’s a special regime for taxation of gaming turnover and it’s quite high when you consider punters keep feeding the machine (actual or metaphorical) until they lose all their money.

Btw the 0% income tax rate in Bosnia is wrong, it’s 10% in both entities and brcko.

this nationalisation/centralisation does make me sad.

Especially when it’s accompanied by rhetoric about how they are doing the exact opposite.

In a classic example of ‘unspeak’ (Sir) Eric Pickles ‘Localism’ bill was in fact a massive centralising power grab from local authorities to bring more decisions under Whitehall control, while simultaneously spouting a load of guff about empowering local communities

Have you ever met any local counselors or attended a meeting ?

yep 😆

In their defence there are some great ones but i realise there are very many very poor counicllors but i view it as a viscious cycle, why would you be one? Make them organisations worth leading and the applicants would get better is my hope.

In a classic example of ‘unspeak’ (Sir) Eric Pickles ‘Localism’ bill was in fact a massive centralising power grab from local authorities to bring more decisions under Whitehall control, while simultaneously spouting a load of guff about empowering local communities

Which is why it makes me sad.

In defence of local counsellors it is an unpaid (and often unappreciated) role, so you’re not going to get your high flyers as they’re working 70 hour weeks in the City……

In defence of local counsellors it is an unpaid (and often unappreciated) role

It’s not actually, they can pay themselves quite generously. The former Tory leader of Croydon Council appreciated himself so much that last year he gave himself a pay rise of 18%, taking it to well over £1,000 a week, far more than most Croydon residents earn.

http://www.croydonadvertiser.co.uk/Croydon-MP-Gavin-Barwell-brands-ex-council-leader/story-22870884-detail/story.html

It’s not actually,

Only a few full time positions get a salary, the majority just get an allowance.

http://www.beacouncillor.org.uk/howto/payment.htm

It’s all called “an allowance”, if you read my link you’ll see that it says : “Cllr Fisher asked council officers for his allowances to be increased from £53,000 to £62,352.”

Perhaps MPs could try that stroke, ie, scrap their salaries and just have “allowances” instead.

teamhurtmore – Member

…when you suggested tax freezes pre-election

A five year ban on income tax, VAT and NI???

The three largest revenue earners capped. Hmmm…..seems quite extreme/ballsy (you decide)

Sorry, haven’t read the entire thread. However, perhaps its as simple as this:

A ban on increasing certain taxes may be a “nice to have” but at this stage I take that proposal as an aspiration and I have no doubt that if that policy doesn’t produce the desired result, that the policy will be revised.
And for me this is more important than the BS. As we all know, nothing is written in stone and nothing is constant and so if things don’t go exactly as planned (as surely they can’t, always) then what I need is someone in charge who will alter their policy to adapt when required rather than sail the ship onto the rocks to save face.

My mother was a Councillor, she was certainly better informed than Jamba, although that is a relatively low bar. She received an allowance of a few thousand a year which did come in handy.