General Chat

Despite numerous attempts over the years, the Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and other senior members of the government, have dodged the question when asked to describe what they mean when they refer to "hardworking people"

Well now we know because the Conservative Party Chairman Grant Shapps has let the cat out the bag by tweeting a Tory Party advert about the changes to beer and bingo taxes announced in the budget.

The advert said the 1p cut in beer duty and the halving of bingo duty to 10% would help "hardworking people" to do more of the things they enjoy.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26658742

As a hard-done-by retired person :-( Thought I would have a go at this BBC Budget Calculator :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17442946

Yipee! I will have an extra £96.00 to buy a beer and play bingo :-D

I don't think so ...... :-(

What's bingo?

OFTG.How can they possibly know what hard working people are like? They,ve never done any hard work ,and probably never met a hardworking person.**M**.

I think some certainly have - bit of a generalisation.

There are some excellent MPs out there but I think this shows how out of touch the upper reaches of the party may be.

What puzzles me is that they are always saying they are - helping people who work hard to provide for their families to be able to keep more of the money they earn.

However when I look at the Red Book which gives more information than the actual Budget Speech, my reading is that they keep moving the goal post for the thresholds at which people start to pay the higher rate tax of 40%, albeit the figures are based on taxable income so excludes personal allowances.

In the tax year 2012/2013 the threshold was £34,370, in the tax year 2013/2014 the threshold was £32,010, in the tax year 2014/2015 the threshold will be £31,865, and in the tax year 2015/2016 the threshold you will start paying the 40% rate will be £31,785.

What they are doing is drawing more and more hard working people into the 40% tax band - so how is that helping people who work hard to provide for their families to be able to keep more of the money they earn :-S

is this relevant, I wonder.....

The Squeezer

The local bar was so sure that its bartender was the strongest man around that they offered a standing £1000, bet. The bartender would squeeze a lemon until all the juice ran into a glass, and hand the lemon to a patron. Anyone who could squeeze one more drop of juice out would win the money.

Many people had tried.... over time: weightlifters, longshoremen, etc., but nobody could do it.

One day, this scrawny little fellow came into the bar, wearing thick glasses and a polyester suit, and said in a small voice, "I'd like to try the bet."

After the laughter had died down, the bartender said, "OK"; grabbed the lemon; and squeezed away. Then he handed the wrinkled remains of the rind to the little fellow. But the Crowd's laughter turned to total silence.... as the man clenched his little fist around the lemon.... and six drops fell into the glass.

As the crowd cheered, the bartender paid the £1000, and asked the little man: "What do you do for a living? Are you a lumberjack, a weight-lifter, or what?"

The little fellow quietly replied:





"I work for Revenue UK"

Roll up!! Roll up!!




Buy 100 pints of Beer and save a pound......... :-|

Hardworking people like myself will never be well off, rich people didn't get rich by working hard.
I was born with nothing & have most of it left. lol

Don't get me wrong, I am not against the principle of individuals being allowed to access their pension pots and allowing them to decide how they spend their own money.

Had this been in place when I retired, I retired at 67 as a result of being made redundant, instead of being forced to buy an annuity, I could have cashed in my pension pot and paid of my mortgage. I was not able to do that so I had sell my house at a time when property prices had fallen quite dramatically. In 2007 my house was valued at £225K, when I was made redundant in 2010 it was valued at £178K, now in 2014 the asking price for similar houses in the street where I lived is £230K :-(

Going back to what the Chancellor announced, my reading of that is, from April 2015, if you are lucky enough to have pension pots totaling £100,000, you would be able to take £25,000 of that tax free and then take the remaining £75,000, however that £75,000 would be taxable.

What will the individual do - spend some of it, invest some of it, or blow the lot?

I accept that there are a lot of responsible people out there who would make wise decisions, but there are also a lot of people who would prefer to live for today and to hell with tomorrow.

I cannot help wondering whether in the long term, this change will come back and bite HM Treasury severely on the backside. I also wonder what the future will be for pension schemes as the whole idea of pension schemes, is to provide a pension for the individual when they retire.

This is one budget summary sent to us, which might help some people.

Personal Allowance increasing to £10,000 in April 2014 and £10,500 in April 2015.
The higher rate (40%) Tax rate threshold to rise to £41,865 in April 2014 from £41,450 and to £42,285 in 2015.
Inheritance tax is to be waived for members of emergency services who give their lives in job
Tax duty on long haul flights to be lowered
The tax on homes owned through a company now affects properties worth £500,000+
Cash & Shares ISA now merged into one, with a new ISA allowance of £15,000 from 1st July and Child Trust Funds limits raised to £4,000.
10p Savings Tax rate abolished
Premium Bonds investment limit raised to £40,000 from June.
Pensioners will no longer have to buy an annuity on retirement and any excess cash taken from the pension pot will be taxable at income rate levels not a fixed 55%.
Pensioner Bonds being introduced for over 65's
No fuel duty rise in September
Beer duty reduced by 1p
Tobacco duty to rise by 2% above inflation.
Business rate discounts and enhanced capital allowances in business enterprise zones extended for 3 years
Additional funding of £3bn to promote exports
Annual investment allowance of 100% relief raised to £500,000
Bingo tax reduced to 10%

I've a very small private pension pot which hasn't been paid into for years. The return from an annuity wouldn't be worth the cost of an annual statement! As I was planning to cash it in anyway ( and pay the tax) this aspect of the Budget is to my advantage.

I also like the idea of Pensioner Bonds for those who do have a small amount of savings. The announcement suggested an interest rate of up to 4% for a 3 year bond, far greater than anything you can currently find on the high street. The 1 year bond was about half that, but still a good deal. Even if you could only spare to tie up a couple of hundred, they are (currently) good rates.

The raise in the ISA limits could well help young savers who religiously put by excess earnings on a monthly basis - if they can find one which doesn't want a lump-sum.

Hard work is never easy.

Easy work is allowing the Government to continuously fool the 'hard working' electorate.

Sadly, politicians in high positions do not always owe their status to being the best persons for their jobs on the basis of ability.

Bobtanian :-D :-D :-D

+++DetEcTive+++ what I would like to see, probably won't see it in my lifetime, is the State Pension being taken out of tax calculations for anyone 65 and over whose total income including State Pension, is below say £20,000/£25,000, as many people who have an annuity that only pays a very small pension, are as a result of that, drawn into the income tax regime.