Austerity is not an option once this crises is over

I agree. But I'm not the Government

I hope you are right WWM2

The government have found a money tree. I can't really imagine what sort of society it will be. I wish that the opposition would start to find a voice.

daisy It will does in fact it has I am ensuring that everything I read that the opposition is doing gets reported on this forum. The MSM largely will ignore it if they can.

A couple of weeks ago after a long and quite upsetting chat with my accountant he ended by saying “well if nothing else comes from this, let’s hope those people at HMRC will have learned a little compassion”

gilly I wouldn’t hold your breath.

Although they are or a lot of them been told to take annual leave over Easter as after they are all being deployed to the covid crises.

So much “normal” work won’t be done.

I am also sorry to report that when dealing with businesses compassion will never be an option in decisions that HMRC make. If you think about it it can’t be.

Accountants tend to say these things gilly - I hear it a lot at home. HMRC are not responsible for Govt policies on austerity and social justice though, and I hope you’re right WWMk2.

gillybob somehow I doubt it. I've been updating my clients and have had to tell many of them that they should claim whatever benefits are available because the (taxable) grant isn't going to be very much.

I'd rather not trust to luck I'd rather look ahead. we are in for a long period of austerity. We will have to be mostly vegetarians. We will have to increase national defences as the losers will want what prosperity we have. The political right wing will thrive because when the coronavirus becomes endemic people are afraid and the majority will want what they perceive to be 'strong' leadership. The political right wing will as always rely upon a more or less oppressed class of essential workers.

I listened to Lisa Nandy and the Archbishop of Canterbury being interviewed by Andrew Marr. Both talked about the people that do the essential jobs and how important they are to our well being.
Some people on here believe that the high salaries paid to CEO's are justified but they forget about the workers who make that money for them.

Jeff Bezos donated $1 million to a food distribution charity - equivalent to 11 days of his annual income. He and others like him had the brains to think up the business idea in the first place and to then carry it out. But surely their workers should be better paid? Amazon is only providing sick pay for those workers who have tested positive for covid 19.

In case anyone thinks otherwise, I am not envious of the super rich. I honestly couldn't think what to do with all that money, other than to donate most of it.

I have had pretty much the same advice Dinahmo .

I have had many dealings with HMRC over the 25 years we have been in business . The worst being in 2008 when we lost everything we had due to one of our customers going bust. We had finished a large (for us) project and were awaiting payment of several £1000’s when we got the news that they had gone down. I pleaded with the heartless (they must be hand picked) people at HMRC for time to pay , but was refused. As a result we lost our home and caravan that we had worked so hard for. Everyone was paid in full . In hindsight I should have told HMRC to go stuff themselves and let our company go down too. They would’ve got nothing .

I’m writing this now wondering why on we bothered, as we are in just as bad a position now, as we were then.

Surely there shouldn't be any tax due if monies are below a certain amount ? Or if so, it would be a minimum amount as in when hours are reduced or non-existent ?

HMRC aren't so quick when they owe you. I waited 6 years after my H died before they'd worked out his tax returns. I had to keep on at them and it wasn't a piffling amount either or I wouldn't have bothered.

How can we not go into austerity measures? There will be a global recession. Spain and Italy are in serious trouble and even Germany has claimed they won’t be given an EU bailout. Big bosses create jobs. Obviously the person at the top will get paid the most. Ask the workers who wants to apply for his/ her job as CEO. Plenty want the money, not many want the responsibility. A bad CEO can bring a company down then there will be no jobs, even crappy jobs!
Who is going to pay for all these people who are not going to be working?

Razzy Do you honestly investment managers work hundreds or thousands of times more than "ordinary" workers. Many of them are set to make a fortune from this disaster. They need to be taxed to pay for the NHS, etc. They can afford it.

razzy in my working life I met hundreds of CEOs , believe me there is nothing special about them. They may think they are special, but they are not.

Should be "Do you honestly think … "

The dream that our society will change and become fairer when this is over is highly unlikely. This was promised to the cannon fodder of the 2 world wars and here again we have a different type of fodder. Boris is eternally grateful to the NHS staff at the moment just like one of his predecessors - Cameron - was when his young son received first class treatment, but they soon forget.

aspen I’m so afraid you are right.

Sadly, I don’t think anything will change. So many people are unfortunately very selfish, and I think the stockpilers and lockdown ignorers will continue their selfish behaviour.
I bet most of the people who were all over social media condemning businesses or hotels who treated staff badly, and saying they would never give them any custom, wouldn’t even remember which business it was.