DrEvil

Sorry, but I'm getting a little sick of the 'proposed' changes that keep popping up - the latest being the 40% capital gains + annual home owner tax...

What the hell do they think they are playing at, I can only just afford the 2 bed semi I have just bought, if they bring in all these changes, I'll be living in a card board box next year!

(btw the article is on BBC news.. I've not got the link to hand)

DrEvil

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3011850.stm

There you go, thats the latest bright idea.. what with the above and the personal taxes we are all liable for, its a joke.

Adrian F

he has to do some thing to sort out the housing market as part of his declared policy of getting ready for entry to the Euro.

Can't understand why people can't see that they are spending billions of our money making entry unavoidable so when we have the vote it is to late to say no!

darlodge

What a bloody good idea, the govurment makes more money out of us and we are left with the ever growing bill.

What a load of *****

Darren

Poor Guy

lets move to the US and leave B. Liar with his hippys, gays, drug addicts, criminals on the street, asylum seekers and euros.
lower tax there too.

98p a gallon go go juice

hes a tosser.

south-star

So how do you expect the government to pay for the increase in health and education that we the public voted them in to do?

BOB.T

What a sack of p*ss[img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img] I can't afford to move out of home anyway but with folk bumping up their prices to cover their loss on tax I've got no chance

As for folk wanting to sell at a lower price to avoid paying more tax, what a crock, I'd rather not sell at than pay the government anything I don't have to[img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

New Labour, New Tax more like, tossers....and no I didn't vote for them[img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

BOB.T

I thought this was to sort the housing market out Likewise road tax went on, er, well roads!

That's what ***** me of, they say a tax is one thing when really it's just a money making scheme, why can't they just say, we're gonna tax you to death cos we need the money!

I believe if they made good use of the money they're already getting of us we wouldn't need any new taxes. I'd start with MPs, if I were in charge they would only be allowed one job, MP and their salarys capped at 25k which is more than enough for sitting moaning all day, let's see how they like them apples!

DrEvil

South Star - its about time the government fixed the problems with the system, such as benefit fraud and stopped loosing money hand over fist , rather than just increase what we pay.

jasey

It's been so long since I hit the reply button and got to this screen I've forgotten what I was going to say !!!

Oh Yes - Tax - I've read King Tony's election pledges - he's quite clear - he's not going to put taxes up - and anyone that even talks about raising taxes gets slapped down. Oh - Sorry - that's only taxes that everyone has to pay - it's OK to tax home owners and pensioners who save for their future !

This ****'s robbing us all blind - and I can't see anything improving - but we're lucky enough in Scotland to have a brand new parliament building that has only cost £360 Million and it's still not finished.

Luke

Always happy to pay tax to keep this country going.... but not at the moment. Its going into too many pockets.....

Neil Smalley

It's not about tax for services, it's about getting the country ready for the Euro.

Here's how it will work.
Over the next 2-3 years the government will engineer the economy such that when we are asked if we want the Euro or not we, econimically have no choice but to say yes.

I.e if we stay out the economy is screwed, if we go in it'll all be ok.

Before spending all of OUR money on getting ready for the Euro, should'nt they ask us first?

I.e I wanted to create a project at work I would need to create a business case for it and then get executive signoff before doing any of it.

Instead the government are doing the project and then asking for signoff once it's already in place.

Adrian F

Exactly this is all about rigging the vote about the Euro they have been spending millions every year getting ready for its introduction that is our money not theirs!

Leslie

I see they are proposing an annual property tax now!

Les [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

fitzscoob

thought better of it


[Edited by fitzscoob - 6/24/2003 7:43:53 PM]

south-star

Benefit fraud is estimated to cost 2 billion and even if it was totally eliminated it would pay for...............nothing.

People want more investment,that means tax rises.

No alternative i'm afraid.

Dracoro

?? Eh? It would pay for £2billions worth of stuff of course.

Let's have tax at 100% and that'd pay for everything(except it wouldn't and then where would the money come from?). But it wouldn't as sooooo much is wasted (trust me I know, my mate is an economist for the govt.) and the systems need to be overhauled rather than have more cash thrown at it. By making it more efficient would more than pay for organising it properly in the 1st place.

Problem is this is LONG TERM thinking and all governments(in most 1st world countried) are in power for a relatively short term so in many cases there's not the political will to sort it. They merely just go for the vote grabbing '£3billion extra spent' (wasted surely?) so they can hopefully get another term in office.

But this would need a politician/leader with backbone and a party that will support such a politician/leader. Both as rare as rocking horse ****.

[Edited by Dracoro - 6/25/2003 9:23:53 PM]

south-star

The tax take under the Tories was around 35%,under Labour its 37%.
So where's these massive tax rises you're on about?

Secondly do you not think that if there were these massive efficiency savings out there Labour wouldnt implement them,of course they would.

camk

UK tax is some of the cheapest in Europe.

south-star

Direct tax it is,however it could be argued we get less for it.

I think in France the tax take is 42%,but they get decent railways.

Sweden has a tax take of over 60%...

Dracoro

Incorrect I'm afraid. They'll make more efficient what they can WITHIN the term they are in power. If it's gonna take 5/10/20 years to make things efficient they won't bother unless there's little to be lost(invested!) up front. Some departments/systems in the public sector work OK, some don't. the NHS is one of the worst offenders but carries the highest cost.

Basically it takes a long time to make the NHS efficient but then there's no gain for the current people in power as they'll not be there when it's all running OK so they lack the motivation or political will to do so. Who knows, maybe some do but chucking more money at the problem that's jsut gonna be wasted is senseless.


Aside from the above, an interesting 'fact' form Private Eye .

The estimated cost of a 3 mile rail tunnel under Leipzig, Germany to link two sections of network is £400m.
The estimated cost of a 5 mile Crossrail tunnel under London to link two sections of network is £15,000m

That's the sort of inefficiency that many government departments run under!!!!

Adrian F

I don't know about central government but i deal with both Labour and Conservative local authorites day in day out and the Labour ones are much more inefficient in my area's of work than the Conservative and tend to get ripped off because they are badly organised and badly run. in terms of Value for money the Conservatives get the better deal!

camk

AdrianF,
Do you deal with them country wide or just in your area. I'm no Labour fan but I do find it difficult to believe there is a huge difference between Labour and Tories, especially as much of the work is done by Civil Servants who are the same guys doing the work regardless of which party is in power. I think many people forget that.

super slider

' The estimated cost of a 3 mile rail tunnel under Leipzig, Germany to link two sections of network is £400m.
The estimated cost of a 5 mile Crossrail tunnel under London to link two sections of network is £15,000m

That's the sort of inefficiency that many government departments run under!!!! '


or the profits required by the construction company's to pay their fat cat bosses, the charges costed by consultants for thier exorbitant fees, or the lawyers on £1000 a day or whatever.

Gordo

FFS - it drives me mad when people wheel out stuff like 'they pay much higher tax abroad' (meaning income tax) and this week we have had the leftie spasmos suggesting a higher rate for high earners to reduce the tax for middle income. Shame these same idiots didn't pay attention in their maths classes at school - there aren't enough 'higher' earners to take middle income earners from £35k to £50k (yesterday's Mirror) out of the higher rate category, even if you taxed them at 100%.

The tax take in countries across Europe is remarkably similar in terms of the total pence in the pound that is taken. By the time you've paid NI, VAT on goods, tax on fuel, council tax etc, the Swedish 60% starts to look pretty reasonable. The problem is that people only ever compare individual taxes, not the big picture.

The Labour government has always been tax and spend - sure, people voted for them to spend more on health and education but they also voted for a manifesto that promised no income tax rises - wonderful slight of hand as they increased NI instead, and right across the board (this would be income tax, then?). Time to abolish NI, cut the bull**** and have a transparent tax system.

I even saw some leftie sh*te yesterday that suggested it is unfair for council tax to be charged evenly across the board - i.e. they feel that higher earners should pay more. Why? It's a service FFS, noone would justify higher earners paying more for electricity, say, so why should council tax be any different? Local councils should not be tax collectors IMO - bring back the poll tax with a fixed rate no matter where you live in the country.

Gordo

Gordo

Gordo

Oh, and Southstar - "The tax take under the Tories was around 35%,under Labour its 37%"

that's be a 6% tax hike then (2/35). In my book that's pretty significant........and there's clearly more to come.

The Zohan

Quote
Benefit fraud is estimated to cost 2 billion and even if it was totally eliminated it would pay for...............nothing.

People want more investment,that means tax rises.

No alternative i'm afraid.
-------------------------------------------------------------
I disagree, fixing the benefit fraud system along with streamlining the management heavy NHS, crummy local councils and this stupid govenrments headless chicken approch to running the country would help no-end.

The tx oayers are seen as the cash cow to bail them out of their f*ck-ups and fund more as and when they have another brainstorm!

The country is badly run by people who have no accountability. sort this out first beofre asking for more money

I firmly believe people would be prepared to pay more if they thought their money was being spent wisely not frittered away by a bunch of incompentants who could not give a to$$!

It's not just income tax it is all the stealth taxes as well, we are being fleeced already.

If a business was ths badly run it would go out of business or the managemt replaced by people who could do the job.


[Edited by Paul Habgood - 6/26/2003 9:21:35 AM]

Dracoro

I agree, however, it's up to the govt. to say 'no, We'll pay you x amount and nothing more. Take the contract or leave it.'

By not doing this is being inefficient. In the case of the tunnel, they should speak to the contractors tending for the Leipzig contract. They offer value for money. That'd also put pressure onto businesses here to sort their act out.

scoob_babe

I can't believe this could happen. Its taken us ages to be able to afford a decent house in a good area and we had to rely on the amount that we made of the sale of our flat to be able to afford the house too.
It also cost us a sizeable amount in all the fees associated with moving - are they going to abolish estate agent fees, stamp duty, land search fees, solicitors bills, removal company fees - I think not. Oh - and who would compensate us for the amount of time taken off work to move and then do up the dump we have then been forced to move into to make in fit for human living. Then guess what, you will have increased the value therefore putting yourself in line for another tax bill just to do it all over again

[Edited by scoob_babe - 6/26/2003 10:05:41 AM]