The Budget, March 2012

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by DocDutch

Okay i am a smoker 1st of all.

So why are us smokers being shafted again jeez

I worked that out 6 years ago and gave up smoking. For those that smoke and on 20 a day thats an extra £139 a year up in smoke

Gotta love how every budget they slap more tax on tobacco supposedly on the grounds of health but then add nothing to alcohol lol. Load of rubbish and cutting top rate tax just shows really where their priorities are remember folks "we're all in it together".

Originally Posted by RizzyKing

Gotta love how every budget they slap more tax on tobacco supposedly on the grounds of health but then add nothing to alcohol lol. Load of rubbish and cutting top rate tax just shows really where their priorities are remember folks "we're all in it together".

Alcohol has gone up in previous budgets. I don't think that works against the narrative of 'we're all in it together'. I never believed that anyway but the idea isn't undermined by this measure IMO. I would also argue that, in moderation, alcohol isn't really harmful in the same way smoking is.

Well, I am a *lot* better off - Mrs T and I are growing a B&B business and the tax-free allowance is going up faster than our earnings. We have always been a sole-breadwinner family (i.e. me) but now we are both working together we are looking at earnings of over £18,000 before we pay any income tax, once the measure announced today comes in.

This budget has been good for people who are considering starting out as self-employed but are worried about whether they can quickly start to earn enough to make ends meet.

[Taf]

Five million pensioners take £260 a year hit in £3bn 'hidden' raid after tax allowances are changed

Dr Ros Altmann, Director-General, Saga said: 'This is an outrageous assault on decent middle-class pensioners.

'This Budget contains an enormous stealth tax for older people. Over the next five years, pensioners with an income of between £10,000 and £24,000 will be paying an extra £3 billion in tax while richer pensioners are left unaffected.

there will be a 3.02p per litre hike in fuel duty from August.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...idden-tax.html

---------- Post added at 16:20 ---------- Previous post was at 16:17 ----------

Originally Posted by DocDutch

I would love to see what happens if the UK population wouldn't smoke for a month and see what George tries to do then

Just a quick guesstimate: now 78% of the price of a pack of fags goes straight back to the exchequer.

http://www.the-tma.org.uk/tma-public...arette-prices/

Originally Posted by Chris

Well, I am a *lot* better off - Mrs T and I are growing a B&B business and the tax-free allowance is going up faster than our earnings. We have always been a sole-breadwinner family (i.e. me) but now we are both working together we are looking at earnings of over £18,000 before we pay any income tax, once the measure announced today comes in.
.

So you spilt the income between two and thus use all of the tax free allowance? Was there anything else announced that is of benefit? The tax returns being cheaper if turnover is less than £77,000 for example...

[Taf]

Commenting on today’s Budget announcement, Jaine Chisholm Caunt, Secretary General of the Tobacco Manufacturers’ Association (TMA), said:

“Today’s announcement of an 8% increase in tobacco tax will do nothing to reduce the level of tobacco smuggling and crossborder shopping which cost HM Treasury up to £3.6 billion in lost tax revenue in 2009/10. Since the beginning of 2011, tobacco taxes have increased by at least 19% (over £1.00 on a pack of 20 cigarettes) and with household incomes falling, there is a real concern that smuggled tobacco consumption will accelerate.

According to HM Revenue & Custom’s (HMRC) latest estimates , up to £3.6bn in tax revenue (£8.5 million per day) was lost in 2009/10 to the non-UK duty paid (NUKDP) market, greater than the Metropolitan Police’s annual budget .

http://www.the-tma.org.uk/2012/03/tm...21-march-2012/

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Originally Posted by Taf

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...idden-tax.html

So absolutely no incentive for middle earners to join a pension scheme then with that hidden bombshell.


The planned 3p rise in Fuel duty in August will be going ahead, this will be the sting in the tail for many people. If you fill up a car with an average fuel tank capacity of 55 Litres of fuel. You will be paying £1.65 more at the pumps, plus there is the VAT added on top of the fuel purchase itself at 20% rate.

[Sirius]

I dont know why anyone is shocked any more at Budget time. No matter who the highway man is cooking the books we the great unwashed pay for it

[Hom3r]

Well in the May local elections I'm going to write on my voting slip.

"DROP FUEL DUTY YOU EXPENSES THIEVING SCUMBAGS"

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by Hom3r

Well in the May local elections I'm going to write on my voting slip.

"DROP FUEL DUTY YOU EXPENSES THIEVING SCUMBAGS"

I intend to spoil my vote and might just copy that

[mertle]

Originally Posted by heero_yuy

Alcohol already has increases programmed in though not stated in the budget speech.



Source

Anybody watching "Moonshiners" on Discovery?

George "Fagin" Osborne picks your pockets again.

yes would not be shocked the rebirth home brewing where would the faceless gits be then. No doubt the tax the ingrediants of beer or ban the home manufacturing of alcohol.

Yes I agree Sirius all parties facelss **** who aint got once of braincell. All budgets whichever party follows the normal retoric with tad slants of deviation to make them look different but in essence completely the same let the very top rich take there ball home. All parties scared faceless to tackle the problem let those who wont cough up take there ball away.

I said along time there purge on alcohol would drive it into underworld of profesional criminals. With the worry fake fags/booze now food it totally going to get worse.

Its always been fags, booze, motoring hidden common man tax as the better off its just drop in ocean but lower the scale it hurts badly.

I dont smoke or drink but like driving seems its crime for little pleasure. My mum smokes but 82 she out lived the supposed its dangerous. Now accept right to stop young getting bad habit but its in sense becoming pension tax as many who smoke come from that era cant kick habit due simply how long they been smoking. Not say completely abolish but theres point tax hikes getting beyond joke.

Enough is enough find the milti millionairres and billionairres pick on them for once..

Don't drink,don't smoke and I've no children under 16.I receive no benefits and I'm not retired yet.I own my own home and although I have some savings the interest rates are useless.I do drive and so I will be shopping locally as usual because of high fuel costs.
There is frankly nothing for me in this budget though I suspect that as a soon to be pensioner I will be stung in another 3 years time and I suspect that a lot of the pensioner perks such as free prescriptions and heating allowance will disappear by that time.

[Traduk]

For pensioners and pensioners to be today was one heck of a nasty budget.

For those already on pensions, the freezing of the April 2012 level possibly until the general allowances for those under 65 catch up has destroyed a principle set in place in 1957 and revised in 1975. A bedrock protection against living into retirement on a fixed income is in the process of being swept away.

Those who are unfortunate to retire whilst the drift down parity is taking place need not be concerned because from April 2013 (when the freeze begins) nobody retiring will get on it anyway as those retirees are stuck at pre-65 allowances. Loss by exclusion?.

As the vast majority of posters are probably too young to be concerned about retirement the good news is, repeated from last year, longevity is alive and well and a closely scrutinised statistic for elevating the retirement age so that IMO 70 is perhaps a good guestimate for those under 50. Of course many under 50 will never reach 70 but there wouldn't be much point in moving the target if it was achievable.

With the first steps of the privatisation of the NHS almost law, resentful anger about pensions and public sector workers possible regional pay and just about everybody excluding bankers well and truly fed up, we are moving towards the critical mass needed for a Thatcher type passive public backlash.

Any non mainstream parties who fancy their chances in the next election have a chance in a lifetime to court the mass of voters (grey) who Osborne managed to alienate big time.

I suspect a surprisingly small percentage of tax paying grannies lose anything on the allowance claw-back so in one move he got almost the lot. Brown got a small percentage when he scrapped the 10% rate and I suspect that the move was a nail in Liebours coffin. Osborne has trumped that big time like a kid let loose with a nail-gun and the biggest voting bloc , by miles, will not forget. I thought the Cons had a chance of two in a row without the stooges but today it has been blown away.

Originally Posted by Sirius

I intend to spoil my vote and might just copy that

You would be surprised how many people "spoil" their voting papers with written messages,a few years ago i was scrutinising voting papers as an observer at the count for a political party. Before i saw the light.