10p tax fiasco

[NoddY]

Work should not be taxed.

[Platypus]

I strongly believe the reason that he did it was to catch out contractors paying themselves low salaries. Remember also that he increased small companies' corporation tax at the same time as announcing this measure.

eh? No tax to pay on 5000 though is there?

And no evidence that people paying themselves this minimum are more likely to be investigated.

[DieScum]

The thing is tax credits are a proven way to target tax cuts at those who need them. People who work in low paid jobs and have a famil to look after.

Some guy on Newsnight was saying why should he be punished because he doesnt have children - and was clapped for it. I think that was dumb. As a single person without a family he has fewer costs and he might well have a family in the future anyway.

Tax credits are more complex to administer but I can't think of another way to target specific groups. For me I'm happy to help low earning families and I do think they should be helped.

[Lucy]

The thing is tax credits are a proven way to target tax cuts at those who need them. People who work in low paid jobs and have a famil to look after.

Some guy on Newsnight was saying why should he be punished because he doesnt have children - and was clapped for it. I think that was dumb. As a single person without a family he has fewer costs and he might well have a family in the future anyway.

Tax credits are more complex to administer but I can't think of another way to target specific groups. For me I'm happy to help low earning families and I do think they should be helped.

Except children are a choice. Just as buying an expensive handbag is a choice, why should anyone be 'helped' at the expense of anyone else for their choices.

People need to think before they have kids, simple questions like: can we afford them?

Welfare state gone mad.

I am not happy to be robbed so doleys and dopeys can have children that they can't afford.

[bogeyman]

Tax credits are more complex to administer but I can't think of another way to target specific groups. For me I'm happy to help low earning families and I do think they should be helped.

By 'low-earning' families, I think you really mean 'non-earning' families.

If you have the decency to work for a living rather than idling, loafing, binge-drinking, BREEDING and sucking on the sour, whithered tit of the state, then you will find you are entitled to very few (if any) 'tax credits'.

A chap I know in my regular pub works very hard (gardener and sometime grave digger!). He is single, childless and poor - by any appropriate definition of the word. He's 51 years old.

He get NO tax credits. I couldn't believe it.

Myself and another chap (more knowledgeable in these matters than me) worked it out on the HMRC website using their interactive form.

We were surprised to find that this bloke WAS INDEED entitled to a tax credit of precisely £0.00. They couldn't even admit to saying he wasn't eligible. Just that his entitlement was, in fact, ZERO.

This country is a mad house

[VectraMan]

Except children are a choice. Just as buying an expensive handbag is a choice, why should anyone be 'helped' at the expense of anyone else for their choices.

I agree, but the problem with that argument is that children aren't responsible for their parents being deadbeats, yet they do suffer the consequences. It'd be nice if there was a way for these tax credits to go only to the child, but even if that were practical it'd have to be an even more ridiculously overcomplicated system than we have now.

So the only answers are: a) all children are brought up by the state, or b) compulsory steralisation of the lower classes.

[Lucy]

I agree, but the problem with that argument is that children aren't responsible for their parents being deadbeats, yet they do suffer the consequences. It'd be nice if there was a way for these tax credits to go only to the child, but even if that were practical it'd have to be an even more ridiculously overcomplicated system than we have now.

So the only answers are: a) all children are brought up by the state, or b) compulsory steralisation of the lower classes.

c) there is no welfare, only charity.

I believe that if deadbeat parents had to go begging to the churches etc for money for their kids, rather than have it deposited into their bank accounts they might think twice before popping them out, and there would an interest from the wider community in the lives of others, knowing money didn't just appear from nowhere.

I don't give to charity because I am already robbed by the state, if I paid less tax I would happily give to charity.

[DieScum]

If you have the decency to work for a living rather than idling, loafing, binge-drinking, BREEDING and sucking on the sour, whithered tit of the state, then you will find you are entitled to very few (if any) 'tax credits'.

I'm not talking about benefits I'm talking about the Working Family Tax Credit. This is a tax credit for those with families who are working in low paid jobs. This was introduced to remove the disincentive to work - the situation where you are better off on the dole rather than working.

So if you didnt have the system of tax credits you wouldn't be able to target people in that way and it would make situations where people are better off on the dole more prevalent.

So while it is more complicated than simple tax levels for everyone it does help to prevent exactly the situation you are complaining about. It encourages people to work.

[TheRefactornator]

eh? No tax to pay on 5000 though is there?

And no evidence that people paying themselves this minimum are more likely to be investigated.

Well said that man bang on target. The most sensible thing said in this thread. Is it me or are things just falling apart around here?
The exodus to the way of the revenue funding minimalist is wisdom. (Confusious 523bc)

[Waldorf]

I remember Brown last year when he announced the 20% rate, but failed to highlight that it would be paid by getting rid of the 10% rate - the liebour MP's all cheared - now they know how it feels to be duped, we learn't years ago that Brown cannot be trusted, I guess his MP's have now realised this too!