Tax '#[]-=!

[Fretwired]

Look at that graph the rate of tax change certainly when up from 1997 onwards.
Would a transition to a lower tax rate not cause massive inflation though as everybody puts
their prices up?
Current tax rises (and child benefit cuts), are really killing me at the moment. In real terms a 10%
cut in monthly income, together with about a 10% rise in day to day price increases fuel both car and the home,
food, water, insurances, etc, etc.
Why is it that two people earning £49K each, can keep the full benefit (and pay less tax)
than a single income family where one half stays at home and takes full responsibility for the
kids, and the other earns £60K and gets nothing (also a larger proportion of their income goes to the tax
man)

If you earn just over £50K pay extra into your pension, claim tax relief on the payments and get your child benefit back.

The current tax and spend culture is not sustainable. And coming to a letter box near you soon will be the power bills from hell. Because Labour shut many of our coal burning power stations early and then did bugger all and building new power generating capacity [nuclear power stations] we're all be looking at 400% increases in energy costs as we'll have to import expensive gas. We'd better be nice to the Russians.

[evilmags]

Look at that graph the rate of tax change certainly when up from 1997 onwards.
Would a transition to a lower tax rate not cause massive inflation though as everybody puts
their prices up?
Current tax rises (and child benefit cuts), are really killing me at the moment. In real terms a 10%
cut in monthly income, together with about a 10% rise in day to day price increases fuel both car and the home,
food, water, insurances, etc, etc.
Why is it that two people earning £49K each, can keep the full benefit (and pay less tax)
than a single income family where one half stays at home and takes full responsibility for the
kids, and the other earns £60K and gets nothing (also a larger proportion of their income goes to the tax
man)

Initially you would almost certianly have to raise interest rates and maybe a few other inflation targeting measures while lowering tax rates. This would have several desireable effects. Firstly savings would acrrue value at a rate that is actually above infaltion. It would also increase expected returns from pension investments and help sort the impending pension crisis. Thirdly it would keep a lid on houseprices, which are still out of kilter with incomes. You can then slowly lower interest rates to get the economy moving. It is worth noting that higher interest rates would also encorage people to pay down debt quicker, or hit the reset button via bankruptcy. The higher interest rates would also offer protection against commodity inflation.

Walking around London the other day I chanced upon a council estate, just by leafy regents park. I one bedroom studio style apartment near Regents park is out of reach for all but millionaires. That estate is literally worth billions of pounds, which could be used to a) build a much nicer estate somewhere cheaper. b) pay down some debt. London has about the most expensive property prices in Europe and the Western World and we are using assets in such areas for cheap social housing. Very hady for Mayfair Hedgies who want to score some coke, but I can't see much social benefit for that level of cost. You could give every resident in that estate £100,000 to leave, rehouse them in London and still sell the land to developers at a vast profit.

[Axe_meister]

If you earn just over £50K pay extra into your pension, claim tax relief on the payments and get your child benefit back.

The current tax and spend culture is not sustainable. And coming to a letter box near you soon will be the power bills from hell. Because Labour shut many of our coal burning power stations early and then did bugger all and building new power generating capacity [nuclear power stations] we're all be looking at 400% increases in energy costs as we'll have to import expensive gas. We'd better be nice to the Russians.

I would if I could. Bring back married couples allowance I say!

[Axe_meister]

Initially you would almost certianly have to raise interest rates and maybe a few other inflation targeting measures while lowering tax rates. This would have several desireable effects. Firstly savings would acrrue value at a rate that is actually above infaltion. It would also increase expected returns from pension investments and help sort the impending pension crisis. Thirdly it would keep a lid on houseprices, which are still out of kilter with incomes. You can then slowly lower interest rates to get the economy moving. It is worth noting that higher interest rates would also encorage people to pay down debt quicker, or hit the reset button via bankruptcy. The higher interest rates would also offer protection against commodity inflation.

Walking around London the other day I chanced upon a council estate, just by leafy regents park. I one bedroom studio style apartment near Regents park is out of reach for all but millionaires. That estate is literally worth billions of pounds, which could be used to a) build a much nicer estate somewhere cheaper. b) pay down some debt. London has about the most expensive property prices in Europe and the Western World and we are using assets in such areas for cheap social housing. Very hady for Mayfair Hedgies who want to score some coke, but I can't see much social benefit for that level of cost. You could give every resident in that estate £100,000 to leave, rehouse them in London and still sell the land to developers at a vast profit.

I agree with you on one hand but on the other, you are potentially moving a low paid group of workers out of an area where they are needed and forcing them to commute.
Personally I think we should get rid of estates full stop, why not have areas with a mix of low and high cost housing.

[evilmags]

I agree with you on one hand but on the other, you are potentially moving a low paid group of workers out of an area where they are needed and forcing them to commute.
Personally I think we should get rid of estates full stop, why not have areas with a mix of low and high cost housing.

I live in a mixed area. I wish it was not. Mixed areas generally become disfunctional. There is a hell of a lot of academic work on this subject.

There is clearly a need for afoardable housing in London. I just fail to see one for Chelsea, Regents Park, Belgravia ect. Most low paid workers moved out of London years ago. If London needs workers it should pay them, rather than expect the taxpayer in the rest of the UK to subsidise them. The benefits culture in places like Hackney and East Islington practically defines rental prices, and as employers are generally less generous than housing benefits departments when the rent goes out, it is the workers being forced to leave while the unemployed remain.

[LoFi]

Personally I think we should get rid of estates full stop, why not have areas with a mix of low and high cost housing.

They do - all new developments over a certain size have to provide a certain amount of "affordable" housing (i.e. Council or HA).

My biggest problem with Council housing is the fact that once you're in one, even if your circumstances change, you and your family are always entitled to it. While I can see that turfing someone out because they start earning too much could be disincentivizing, there needs to be a limit: I know someone who's been in a fairly decent council house (worth about £350K) for a few years, and she's recently been left her father's estate - it's paying her an income equivalent to a £60K salary. She still gets to keep the house.

[Fretwired]

They do - all new developments over a certain size have to provide a certain amount of "affordable" housing (i.e. Council or HA).

She still gets to keep the house.

I have no problem with this so long as she pays a commercial rent, but I bet she doesn't.

But can you blame people like her when you have the likes of ex-minister Frank Dobson who earned over £100K as a minister and now gets £66K plus £40K contribution from his wife, and yet still lives in a subsidised £1M council flat claiming 'he can't afford' to rent in London. Maybe he should move to the suburbs and commute like most of the central London health workers.

http://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/i_earn..._flat_1_923091


And then there are those who rent out their council flat ...

[limbicsystem]

I have no problem with this so long as she pays a commercial rent, but I bet she doesn't.

But can you blame people like her when you have the likes of ex-minister Frank Dobson who earned over £100K as a minister and now gets £66K plus £40K contribution from his wife, and yet still lives in a subsidised £1M council flat claiming 'he can't afford' to rent in London. Maybe he should move to the suburbs and commute like most of the central London health workers.

http://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/i_earn..._flat_1_923091


And then there are those who rent out their council flat ...

Yes Fret, it's a shitty, unfair, corrupt world and paying less tax will make it all so much better....

[Fusionista]

Yes Fret, it's a shitty, unfair, corrupt world and paying less tax will make it all so much better....

In principle I believe it would. The government-spent quid is a sight less efficiently spent than the private quid, long before you get to the Kafkaesque iniquities outlined above - which are in any case but the tip of an iceberg which has already gashed the hull of the ship of state, even if it has has not yet sunk (tell me I'm wrong when you see the UK lose its AAA credit rating and the pound continue its slide against other world currencies, while more and more pensioners trade their houses in an effort to keep warm and fed). The problem is how do we get back to some semblance of sanity ? Not with the 'representative democracy' we currently have that's for sure. Even if, as Churchill is supposed to have said, "It's better than all the other systems that have been tried," doesn't mean we shouldn't try something else. In the absence of the gravy train being cut back, it is taxpayers who have to say 'No more!' I'm a libertarian of long-standing and loathe UKIP but I'd vote Nazi if I thought they'd cut taxes (...geddit ?-)

[Axe_meister]

Funny thing is the government always gets a minimum 20% rebate on every pound spent (in the uk) via taxation. They never tell you that when they spend. It's alway we're spending 1m on this that and the other when it's actually only 800k