Tax Cuts

Germanshepherdsmum

What do you mean by ‘reforming council tax’ winterwhite?

One 'reform' could be revaluing properties. Council tax is based on extremely out of date property valuations.

I imagine that that would be a political hot potato, possibly equivalent to the poll tax objections and will be left alone.

I'm on the higher tax band in Scotland ,I am happy to pay it when it means that theres a payment for all children to alleviate poverty,slightly higher pay for public sector workers,free bus travel for students and low paid workers up to 22 years old and a lot more.I dont know anyone who has a complaint about the new tax system here ,most people DONT pay any more ,some actually pay less and the under £1000 extra a year I pay appears to be helpful . they are welcome to have it .Surely a careing society wants to pay its way?

GrannyGravy13

ronib

Surely the IFS doesn’t think Hunt will be in government this time next year? So Labour will reverse all the tax cuts in their first budget?

Which is why some people will not vote Labour at the GE

Surely it's widely understood that tax cuts will equal cuts, swingeing cuts, to public services?

What selfish person would contemplate the prospect of a few extra pounds in their monthly pay packet (because that's all that tax cuts ever amount to for the average wage earner) as being more desirable than access to services which are already disastrously constrained?

I suggest that the minor stimulus provided by the tax cuts would be cancelled out by the loss of jobs and private sector business caused by cuts to public services.

paddyann54. You have made a good case for increasing taxes for the higher tax payers and reducing taxes for young families with child care costs plus unaffordable housing. Also parity tax brackets for earned and unearned income?

MaizieD You seem quite out of touch on this. Even £100 monthly per working family will help young families. I agree though that there is an element of selfish interest in this country.

How do you know what the cuts will be worth, ronib? Hotline to Hunt?

MaizieD sarcasm doesn’t help your argument

Genuine question, ronib. Genuine question. 😆

MaizieD The hotline is surely from government researchers scanning various comment sites? Although whether Gnet counts is another question!

ronib

MaizieD You seem quite out of touch on this. Even £100 monthly per working family will help young families. I agree though that there is an element of selfish interest in this country.

I don't ever remember tax cuts increasing my income by as much as £100 a month after a single budget. One hand has always taken away any "gifts" from a budget. Typically, the benefit (or loss) has been around £20. That's not taking into account knock on effect on prices or having to pay for services which were previously free.

If Hunt wants to win votes, the demographic he should target is people in their 30s and 40s with mortgages and childcare costs. Polls show that most of them are currently not predicted to vote Conservative.

growstuff currently 2 x £50 is £100. Working 2 parent families are seeing some improvement but by no means enough.

ronib

growstuff currently 2 x £50 is £100. Working 2 parent families are seeing some improvement but by no means enough.

It's over 20 years since I was part of a two-parent family. I can't remember further back than that. I don't even remember tax cuts increasing my income by £50.

growstuff

If Hunt wants to win votes, the demographic he should target is people in their 30s and 40s with mortgages and childcare costs. Polls show that most of them are currently not predicted to vote Conservative.

Hunt can't do anything about mortgage costs because that's in the hands of the 'independent' Bank of England which is setting interest rates.

Childcare costs? Well, the extension of free nursery provision didn't go down well with providers who said that the subsidy promised by government wasn't enough to make their businesses viable. What else could he propose?

One year, I received some help with childcare costs, but it was marginal and the next year a pay rise pushed me over the edge again.

I don't know Maizie. People in rented accommodation will see a temporary boost in Housing Benefit (already declared) because the Local Housing Benefit is to be readjusted, but I wouldn't mind betting that will be an excuse for landlords to increase rents.

Rather than extending provision of childcare places, maybe he could increase the amount which is paid.

I just think this is the time for tax cuts, but then again I’m not a Tory MP wanting to be re-elected.

Although far from wealthy I would be prepared to pay more tax for decent public services and rather than a tax cut I’d rather see the personal allowance “unfrozen” and raised.

Sorry !! That should read “NOT the time to cut taxes!”

paddyann54

I'm on the higher tax band in Scotland ,I am happy to pay it when it means that theres a payment for all children to alleviate poverty,slightly higher pay for public sector workers,free bus travel for students and low paid workers up to 22 years old and a lot more.I dont know anyone who has a complaint about the new tax system here ,most people DONT pay any more ,some actually pay less and the under £1000 extra a year I pay appears to be helpful . they are welcome to have it .Surely a careing society wants to pay its way?

Absolutely! Well said

I think council tax reform is long overdue - it is a very regressive tax, a was always meant to be temporary - even if the aim is revenue neutral rather than raising more money.

Ideally, I’d like to see it abolished and replaced with something better, but in the interim, increasing the number of council tax bands to at least 12, alongside a revaluation of properties for tax purposes, with a commitment to regular revaluations would produce a more equitable system.

There is also scope for a land value tax on derelict and underused land and buildings to sit alongside those changes, to discourage both land banking and owners allowing property to sit empty/fall to pieces while the land value continues to increase.

When Thatcher reduced the higher rate of income tax from 83% to 60% a Telegraph columnist thanked her but said it wasn't going to encourage him or his friends to work any harder. They would just sit back and enjoy it. I think it was Peregrine Worsthorne who was deputy editor when she came to power. Thatcher's idea had been that tax reductions would encourage people to work harder.

GSM, by reforming council tax I mean restructuring. I read last week somewhere that Buckingham Palace pays less than a 3 bedroom semi in Blackpool. Maybe because not classified as a dwelling or something?
I think most local govt services are funded through CT and it hasn’t been re-evaluated since it was introduced. In particular, suggestions for adding a further band or two above H, to encompass e.g modern gated mansions with grounds large enough for swimming pools are always shouted down, so that in order to raise the amount required for basic services too heavy a load is placed on the occupants of less expensive houses who can least afford it.

Can you imagine the resources that would be required to revalue properties and deal with the inevitable appeals? A lot of older people with little cash live in the big old family home they bought many decades ago. How would they pay?

The major part of Buckingham Palace pays business rates.

.Surely a careing society wants to pay its way?

I think part of the problem, paddyann54 is that we haven't really made up our minds that we are a 'caring society'. Or even that we are a 'society'.

And that there's no real agreement on what constitutes 'caring'.

The Victorians thought they were being 'caring' when they sought to rectify the 'moral degeneracy' of the poor who were dependent on poor relief by forcing them into institutions where conditions were so harsh that they would be forced to find employment to escape them. An attitude which has lingered well into this century with cutting benefits so as to 'make work pay'. Also with the demonisation of 'benefit scroungers'; still much in evidence.

Thatcher's idea had been that tax reductions would encourage people to work harder.

Such irony coming from a woman who managed to 'better herself' by marrying a millionaire. Perhaps she had to work hard to snare him..