The budget

Right have found The Joy of Tax - will read the appropriate chapter.. DH says we threw away the JOS because we had tried it all out

www.theguardian.com/business/2017/mar/06/sick-parcelforce-couriers-royal-mail-mands-john-lewis-hamleys-dpd

There's a petition on 38 degrees if you don't think this is right.

Matthew Taylor was interviewed on Sunday Politics. If anyone is interested I think you will be able to see it on iPlayer.

What should really annoy the lower earring self-employed is that top rate tax payers are getting an income tax cut.
And the chancellor talks of "fairness".

Yes, Jess, really fair, this.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/mar/12/families-lose-sixth-income-national-insurance-nics-universal-credit-uk

JessM I couldn't care less how much higher earners earn or how much their income tax is cut, if I weren't having to take such a huge cut myself. Sorry, but I get fed up with people making sweeping statements.

Good! I'm, glad the Guardian is taking this up. I wrote to the Guardian on Friday. I'm on a one-woman mission to inform as many people as possible about the realities and cumulative effect on the poorest of these changes. I was contacted yesterday by somebody in one of the more influential think tanks, so maybe I'm getting somewhere. I'm fed up with people making speeches about how terrible it is that people go to food banks, are being evicted blah blah and how it's all the fault of the capitalist society, the mega-rich or whatever. None of them (with a couple of exceptions) seem to know the financial details of those affected. I'm fed up with class war and identity politics.

Maybe I'll invite IDS and Jeremy Corbyn round for tea - at the same time .

Can't wait for this, Jess.

thinktankreview.us9.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=3c4f6e5b05cc55109609d1652&id=189872efa9&e=3dcebd5672

Somehow, I don't think May will dare call an early election now.

Isn't it the fault of the capitalist society, daphne?

This wasn't you writing this, was it daphne?

thinktankreview.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3c4f6e5b05cc55109609d1652&id=47d1f8d259&e=3dcebd5672

How could a Prime Minister call an early Election? I understood that the period between General Elections is now fixed. It can only be earlier if the Government loses a vote of confidence in the Commons and the Leader of the Opposition does not have the support to form a new government.

An early General Election can occur but not at the behest of the PM.

www.ft.com/content/56b62784-03fb-11e7-aa5b-6bb07f5c8e12

It would be difficult, but it is possible.

Sorry, just realised my link is unavailable although I managed to access it without subscribing. Anyway, the point is that Theresa May could call a snap election but is unlikely to do so.

She'd have to repeal the Fixed Term Parliament Act first and she's got enough on her plate at the moment.

It would be easier (and more likely) for the Conservatives to lose a vote of confidence and, with the Leader of the Opposition unable to garner sufficient support to form a government, have General Election by default.

The bookmakers odds suggest that this Parliament will run its course.

daphnedil - your post at 19.59 a little confusing. You are upset about having a tax cut? Is that what you meant?
Do you agree with the Chancellor reducing taxes for those with the biggest income, while raising taxes (NI) for some people who are struggling to get by?
And do you not think there is a link between increasing poverty and homelessness and the way the country is being governed?

daphne You seem to agree that the poorest are suffering the most so I don't really understand what you are getting at when you say: "I'm fed up with people making speeches about how terrible it is that people go to food banks, are being evicted blah blah and how it's all the fault of the capitalist society, the mega-rich or whatever. None of them (with a couple of exceptions) seem to know the financial details of those affected. I'm fed up with class war and identity politics."

It is not "class war" to suggest that the tax burden should be proportionate to a person's wealth. If taxes on the richest are reduced, it is fairly obvious that investment in infrastructure and services must be reduced - or the shortfall made up by taking more from the less well off.

Class war? Rubbish. Nothing to do with class, people who have to go to food banks cannot afford to buy food. Many people who are evicted cannot afford their rent

Well, well. I can remember some things in the budget that eventually fell apart at the seams. Didn't Osborne put in something about hot and cold pies being taxed differently in the same takeaway?
I'm struggling to remember a Chancellor making such a cock-up that he has to go to the House a week later and withdraw a major item.
This leaves him with a huge problem as "budget" means just that - I'll get this much money in and spend that much and the two amounts balance. What next? Budget Mark 2?

The government hadn't read their own manifesto. Pity the best opposition came from their own side.

" The government hadn't read their own manifesto. "

Have any of 'them'?

Doesn't matter about the rest. It's the government manifesto that matters; they are the ones whose manifesto needs to stand, not any of the other parties.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/16/hammond-may-mistake-minister-backbenchers

I don't understand why people who claim to care about the poorest, support a U-turn which makes the poorest even poorer. Bonkers! It's no wonder that the public sees Labour as economically incompetent.

"*Changes to National Insurance contributions for the self-employed*

As expected the Government announced further changes to National Insurance contributions (NIC) for the self-employed from 6 April 2018. These are additional to changes previously announced, which are also due to take effect in the 2018/19 tax year, such as the abolition of Class 2 NIC.

The new proposals mean that the rate of Class 4 NIC will increase from its current level of 9%: firstly, there will be an increase of 1% from 6 April 2018 (up to 10%), and secondly a further 1% increase from 6 April 2019 (up to 11%). This is intended to align the amount of NIC the self-employed pay with the rate paid by employed workers, and to reflect the fact that there is now little difference in the contributory benefit entitlement of self-employed and employed NIC.

The announcement may have surprised some, given the Government’s 2015 election ‘tax lock’ promise, not to raise the rate of certain key taxes for the duration of the current Parliament to 2020. However, the legislation implementing that promise only included Class 1 employees’ NIC and not Class 2 or Class 4 NIC paid by the self-employed.

According to the Treasury only the self-employed with profits above £16,250 will pay additional NIC. However, some self-employed workers with very low profits are poised to lose out on their benefits entitlement, due to the simultaneous abolition of Class 2 NIC. So, on the one hand, those with low profits will have a saving, but those who currently contribute towards their state pension by opting to pay Class 2 NIC, despite having profits below the Small Profits Threshold, will have to pay voluntary Class 3 NIC, which at £14.25 per week (for 2017/18 tax) is more than five times what they are paying now."

www.litrg.org.uk/latest-news/news/170309-%E2%80%98first-and-last%E2%80%99-spring-budget

This was no more, but importantly no less, than the backbenchers flexing their muscles. It was a fair change; it did not tax those earning little more indeed the gains were at the bottom.

Hammond promised this would be a balanced budget and now has lost £2bn from the plus side - where will he now get this or will be take something off the minus side? The £2bn for care perhaps.

Now we have the backbenchers asking for changes in the education funding. This would be a good thing in my view as long as they actually increase the amount and don't take off the poorest areas to please the leafy suburbs. However, with a rising number of pupils cutting the same cake a different way will not help.

Perhaps Conservatives are beginning, at long last, to realise you must either tax or borrow to pay for a fairer society - which May declared she wanted - particularly when the gap between rich and poor is now so obscene. Few would like to see more borrowing. All those Osborne tax cuts are coming home to roust.