HMRC's time machine setting sights on all graduates!

[ChimpMaster]

If I knew as a graduate I would have to pay a special "graduate tax" for the rest of my life, then I might not have chosen to go to University. You can't be given a choice and then 20 years later be told that you must now pay for that decision.

If the government wants to tax me for my degree course then perhaps they should refund me for the private schooling I put my 3 kids through (I put them through 3 years of private school, one kid at a time because that is what we can afford).

I'm all for social assistance but a line has to be drawn and successions of incompetent governments have created a beast of a social inequality problem that they are now finding it impossible to deal with. And they won't be able to fix it. It will all come crashing down here in Great Britain.

[BrilloPad]

If I knew as a graduate I would have to pay a special "graduate tax" for the rest of my life, then I might not have chosen to go to University. You can't be given a choice and then 20 years later be told that you must now pay for that decision.

If the government wants to tax me for my degree course then perhaps they should refund me for the private schooling I put my 3 kids through (I put them through 3 years of private school, one kid at a time because that is what we can afford).

I'm all for social assistance but a line has to be drawn and successions of incompetent governments have created a beast of a social inequality problem that they are now finding it impossible to deal with. And they won't be able to fix it. It will all come crashing down here in Great Britain.

University debts are written off at 50. Though after a life on the dole eating McDs, 50 might well be the rest of their life!

The whole world has an issue with social inequality. e.g. in the US they have an underclass. It needs a good depression to remove inequality.

However we can be sure that inequality will continue to rise. And Brexit will accelerate that process.

[NotAllThere]

Why is this an issue? I studied for my degree in the 80's and have absolutely no problem with this. If we expect the current generation to pay a tax for their degree it only seems fair that we do too.

That's Fair™ presumably. (HMRC/Treasury trademark). An irregular adjective:

I think it's fair.
You have to pay more tax.
He's been hit by BN66

[Lance]

Why is this an issue? I studied for my degree in the 80's and have absolutely no problem with this. If we expect the current generation to pay a tax for their degree it only seems fair that we do too. An extra 5% or so on future earnings isn't such a hardship for contractors on 100k + a year, surely?

The issue is that in the 80s only 5% were good enough to get to university.
Now it's closer to 50%. Personally I think that was a pointless endeavour by New Labour and has devalued vocational (real) work, and increased the number of ridiculous degrees (and I don't have a problem with the pure academic stuff as long as it's difficult and very few people do it).

The market is now skewed towards anyone getting ANY degree.
Making students fund their own will help bring the market back to what is needed. Whether that is better than the old way, with few people getting in I'm not sure, but more deprived people are going to university than ever before so for social mobility that's a good thing.

As to your point. I'd happily pay towards my degree on similar terms to the current intake (I'm nearly 50 and didn't get a degree).

[tiggat]

It cuts both ways. Enjoy your outside toilet and having to go down the council baths once a month to have a proper wash

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_2u92HwyII

I bet you're the type of person who refers to under 30s as "snowflakes"

[Lance]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_2u92HwyII

ahhh. The politics of envy. Always a good seller to people who cannot be arsed to vote.

[PhiltheGreek]

Having a look round for taxes which one has paid in the past, have now been abolished and therefore could be levied on modern graduates only in exchange for previous grads paying a retrospective degree tax.

Curiously, there aren't too many. Betting tax has gone but, despite many new taxes cropping up there don't seem to be loads that die off...

[tiggat]

ahhh. The politics of envy. Always a good seller to people who cannot be arsed to vote.

Right because things like house prices, tuition fees and the job market are "politics of envy" and nothing to do with legislation ?

[northernladyuk]

Having a look round for taxes which one has paid in the past, have now been abolished and therefore could be levied on modern graduates only in exchange for previous grads paying a retrospective degree tax.

Curiously, there aren't too many. Betting tax has gone but, despite many new taxes cropping up there don't seem to be loads that die off...

Window tax. Ship tax.

[Lance]

Right because things like house prices, tuition fees and the job market are "politics of envy" and nothing to do with legislation ?

house prices and job market are nothing to do with legislation, they're a market. Not unless some idiots try to fix markets. That hasn't worked out well last time I looked.
See my earlier post on tuition fees.