Now they are raiding the lottery

[Lucifer Box]

tax on whinging fat cat contractors who are better off than the average man in the street can ever dream to be

Yeah, right on, comrade. Those fat cat IT contractors will be the first against the wall when the revolution comes.



Tw@t.

[TonyEnglish]

"tax on whinging fat cat contractors who are better off than the average man in the street can ever dream to be.
If you don't like it don't buy a lottery ticket. Simple"

What utter cr@p. This has nothing to do with being a contractor or well off. It has everything to do with a dishonest government knicking money to use to fill the gaps in thier own spending plans. One of the main points when the lottery was first mooted was that the money raised should NEVER be used to pay for things which taxation should pay for.

[ZATHRAS999]

One of the main points when the lottery was first mooted was that the money raised should NEVER be used to pay for things which taxation should pay for.

Actually it was Labour (as then was) which brought in this particular point. They argued that the Major Government would use the Lottery to make up shortfalls in their own spending (pot, kettle, black >: ). They then forced through an amendment to the act making the use of Lottery funds for primary government spending illegal. An amendment they dropped when they eventually came to power.

This means the so called 'good causes' have lost out twice. Once when the Government swiped the money. Further sales of Lottery Tickets have declined since this change and so therefore their is now a smaller part of a smaller pie available for those causes people want to pay for. Incidentally they also lose out in a third way since money paid to the lottery has to come out of somewhere and it usually is out of people discretionary money - ie money they might give to Charity directly.

Because in effect the Lottery is now becoming a voluntary tax I refuse to take part. If I want my money to go to good causes then I will pay to them directly. It's the only way. If more people did this the whole ediface would collapse. For example hows about paying a regular sum to your local Repetory theatre?, or some other Charity. I think you will find that done this way the recipient Charity can also claim the tax back in which case you grab even more back from GB which can't after all be a bad thing.

[widgetdance]

Yes, you set up a covenant to your registered charity and sign a bit of paper which effectively gives them the tax you pay on that amount.

[Lucifer Box]

You don't even have to do that any more. Just tick the box on the direct debit mandate that says "I am a taxpayer" and the GiftAid scheme takes care of the rest.