4 years of the parliament to run…

No credible opposition…

Brace yourselves.

Sop to the middle classes and OAPs to keep then on board and shaft the poor and young as they don’t vote.

I bet Gideon is fapping himself stupid at the thought of the evil he can unleash.

Oh no wait, he’s just finished

@Harry you could well be onto something, although rumours where it was to be middle class professionals who would take the hit in pension reforms.

As George is so keen on the EU perhaps he should announce he’s aligning our VAT rates and regime wth Europe ?

middle class professional

I think I’m one of them.

poor and young as they don’t vote.

If you can’t be bothered to vote it’s entirely your own fault if you get shafted. This is less of a pandering to the middle classes, more the fact that ultimately the vast majority simply don’t care.

Means test the state pension, make other pensioner benefits taxable, increase taxes on those who can afford to pay them, and crack down on tax avoidance schemes whether they’re used by big business or Joe Public (yes, that includes ISAs). I’d also link a new seller’s stamp duty to the percentage increase in house prices since purchase, so those who made millions simply from the location of their house pay their fair share.

I didn’t realise just how many cuts have affected the young over the last 5 years:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/15/george-osborne-budget-2016-millennials-generation-y-student-debt-housing

I’m only interested wot goes on beer n fags.

Sniff

I’m filling up with diesel in the morning cos you can guarantee it’ll be up by 10p a litre or more by 18.01 hrs tomorrow at the pumps. (even though any duty increase should only apply to stocks taken from refineries after whatever time our Knob of a chancellor dictates, & not what’s in the storage tanks of your local fuel station at that time)

Middle class, middle aged, 2 diesel cars, 2 kids, 4 pensions.

I’m screwed.

Middle class, middle aged, 2 diesel cars, 2 kids, 4 pensions.
I’m screwed.

You’re kidding, right? You’ll be fine. It’s disabled folk getting their benefits cut again that will be screwed!!

+1 DrJ,It will be another tory budget.Giving to the rich and taking from the poor.

Don’t drink, don’t smoke, aren’t eligible for any benefits aside from basic child benefit and live in Wales so I suspect the pain will be felt elsewhere, probably the poor and sick to help pay for tax cuts for those poor lambs in the 50% bracket struggling to feed themselves (in Fortnum’s).

Close to 1 in 10 of the working age population receive some form of Disability Benefit. Think abou that. People’s perception of disabiabled doesn’t tally with disability benefit. Having to cut welfare spending is the legacy of the last Labour Government and one kf the key policies which people voted for.

@essel fuel duty wikl go up I am sure but not by 10p a litre, 2 ?

@flap the point is most people believe someone else is more able fo pay extra taxes and not them

Looks like pensions won’t change much now, and what we have is fair though perhaps scrap the 25% tax free withdrawal? Perhaps that encourages people to put money in though? ISAs encourage saving too. I suppose the emphasis now is to make it attractive for people to save for the future and that eventually pensions will be means tested so only the poorest will get a decent amount – not fair perhaps but what is fair?

eventually pensions will be means tested so only the poorest will get a decent amount

Hmmm, should I spend all my money on bikes and holidays or stay home and save up so the state don’t have to pay me a means tested pension?

Hmmm, should I spend all my money on bikes and holidays or stay home and save up so the state don’t have to pay me a means tested pension?

Anyone under 45 will probably find the threshold of pension entitlement retreating faster than they age anyway, so I shouldn’t worry.

It’ll all be fine.

Unless you need a new wheelchair

In which case, it won’t

You don’t need a new wheelchair, do you?

Hmmm, should I spend all my money on bikes and holidays or stay home and save up so the state don’t have to pay me a means tested pension?

Well we don’t know what’s going to happen, safest way to deal with things is not to keep your eggs in one thing. State pension ain’t great even now, maybe it’ll be the poor house for poor oldies one day? Those with better provisions won’t have to work for quite so long that’s for sure.

Live fast die young….

Those with better provisions won’t have to work for quite so long that’s for sure.

True. What I need is a few buy to lets to bring in an income whilst appreciating in value.

Or if I can’t stretch to that and my employer doesn’t pay me enough to live so I receive in work benefits….maybe I could save some of my non existent excess cash and get a top up on my savings from the state. That would be a generous scheme.

Is it too late to tax all the people who bought council houses for £15k and sold them for £200k 20 years later?

I’d want to see him present two budgets, one for staying in the EU and one for leaving.

This way both can be scrutinised fully.

And since we are currently borrowing just to pay the interest on our debts, any budget that doesn’t accept this is ‘smoke&mirrors’.

Would like to see a budget where unproductive areas of the U.K. economy (e.g. Buy to Let, 2nd homes) are hammered hard, yet productive areas (e.g. Businesses that create jobs and export things) are supported.

Also to get the housing market moving again, how about abolishing stamp duty entirely (unless it’s BTL or second home) but instead create a new ‘sellers tax’, where the gain in house value (purchased value v sold value) gets taxed a certain percentage?

Is it too late to tax all the people who bought council houses for £15k and sold them for £200k 20 years later?

In fairness making all house sales subject to Capital Gains Tax wouldn’t be the worst idea in the world.

Having to cut welfare spending is the legacy of the last Labour Government and one kf the key policies which people voted for.

Total nonsense, there is no ‘have to’ about it at all.

It’s a political choice. There is no fiscal imperative to reduce spending, our deficit has never been cheaper to fund.

Or if I can’t stretch to that and my employer doesn’t pay me enough to live so I receive in work benefits….maybe I could save some of my non existent excess cash and get a top up on my savings from the state. That would be a generous scheme.

The Tory party are now officially beyond parody

In fairness making all house sales subject to Capital Gains Tax wouldn’t be the worst idea in the world.

Bit more sense than taxing the buyers though double taxation would be fairly harsh

In fairness making all house sales subject to Capital Gains Tax wouldn’t be the worst idea in the world.

Why?

Taking capital would be a good way of redistributing wealth in the UK.

Bit more sense than taxing the buyers though double taxation would be fairly harsh

Oh yeah you’d really have to remove stamp duty on purchase too.

Why?

Taking capital would be a good way of redistributing wealth in the UK.

Rightly or wrongly we now treat housing as a type of investment but is doesn’t attract the same rules as any other investment. This would level the playing field as well as acting as brake on house prices where there has been excessive house price inflation.

Two things on the horizon for small employers next year that, as yet most haven’t fully appreciated or factored in are the changes in dividend taxation and the compulsory enrollment for employees into the latest of HM government’s pension fiascos.

I can see there suddenly being a huge reluctance to employ and a few jobs go missing too, either through reduction of employees or outright business closure. We’ve already had one subcontractor decide that enough is enough in 2016, having traded for about 30 years.

This would level the playing field as well as acting as brake on house prices where there has been excessive house price inflation.

Great idea unless the greater economic position relies on the value of the housing market. There must be plenty of people who couldn’t move with a 10% drop in prices so for now it’s a game of prop up the market and try and keep new cash flowing in. Just like the old pension scams, sorry schemes…

jambalaya – Member
People’s perception of disabiabled doesn’t tally with disability benefit.

It’s the perception that’s wrong.
Partly anyway

Your perception is that these cuts will clamp down on the lead swingers whilst everyone else stands by and applauds.

Mine is that ordinary people the elderly and those lacking mobility become increasingly more isolated.
They don’t get to go out, to socialise, to maintain relationships and community ties.

I could give you a hundred reasons why this is a disgrace, but that won’t make you feel like you’ve taught someone a lesson, will it?

Your emotionless ideology makes people suffer.

Not sure many people with higher value properties would want to move much with CGT to pay. Stamp duty is bad enough.

Not sure many people with higher value properties would want to move much with CGT to pay

You could just tax wealth on an annual basic, eg at some low level like 0.2% of wealth is taxed per annum.

I guess you’d use some standard valuation like council tax bands and then actually update them properly every 10 years or so eg my house is worth something like 10x it’s band value.

It’s a political choice. There is no fiscal imperative to reduce spending, our deficit has never been cheaper to fund

What happens when interest rates go up to 2, 5 or say 8% Thats exactly the question fund managers like me look at when deciding whether to buy government debt ? There is a greater financial Tsunami coming when Greece defaults and people start looking more closely at Spain and Italy again.

It’s the political choice we made as a country in 2010 and again in 2015

@footflaps they have wealth taxes in France and even in Switzerland, they don’t raise that much and in France they have hit farmers and small wine producers particularly badly.

I could give you a hundred reasons why this is a disgrace, but that won’t make you feel like you’ve taught someone a lesson, will it?

I’m pretty sure the model to which Tories work can’t take non-financial values into account. You know…fairness, dignity and other trivial things like those. When applied to the less well-off and less able, they are mere inconveniences not to be taken into account if lessons are to be taught.

Looking forward to my £6.25 a month of extra take-home pay from next month – it’ll go some way towards the extra £15 a month council tax I’ve just had the bill for – yay me!