news & politics:discussion

[Neil]

11 hours ago, hodgey123 said:

Would be great and long overdue, but think any changes will be minimal. I heard rumblings of halving the annual exemption amount but I would go further and remove the preferential tax rates for gains and dividends altogether and bring it into line with the income tax brackets. I would also bring dividends and gains within the scope of NIC. Not only would it generate an awful lot of additional revenue, it would greatly simplify the tax system. Will never happen under a Tory government as it would directly impact their voter base.

ant see it being changed too much, a lot of CGT stuff is from pension investments, and if they make it too hard that money will stay locked away from benefitting the normal economy.

[steviewevie]

Stop farting about and put up income tax to pay for NHS and social care.

[cellar]

1 hour ago, Neil said:

ant see it being changed too much, a lot of CGT stuff is from pension investments, and if they make it too hard that money will stay locked away from benefitting the normal economy.

The majority of pension investments are exempt from CGT if we're talking about actual pension wrappers (ie. Not just people buying assets as a "nest egg" for retirement - but the only reason they would be doing that is if they've used up their pension allowances). 

The biggest problem I have with current pension system is the tax relief, as it makes it cheaper for high earners to pay into a pension each year, since the government adds your rate of income tax to any contribution you make. 

But yeah I don't see them messing with pensions too much - CGT seems like really low hanging fruit though. But maybe too sensible (and too much in favour of lower earners) for a Tory government to implement.

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

Stop farting about and put up income tax to pay for NHS and social care.

That goes against their manifesto unfortunately and we know they never like to go against that…

[lost]

Pensions have been muted for a while but I guess they need to keep one eye on incentivising people not bothering to save. If everyone saving now gave up and then relied on pensions credit, council tax relief and housing benefit when they reached retirement the country would have a massive problem.

We've also got an issue with the massive differentials between the money purchase schemes in the private sector and defined benefits in the public. People in the private do need to squirrel away hundreds of thousands of pounds to retire on the equivalent two thirds salary

[Neil]

Just now, lost said:

Pensions have been muted for a while but I guess they need to keep one eye on incentivising people not bothering to save. If everyone saving now gave up and then relied on pensions credit, council tax relief and housing benefit when they reached retirement the country would have a massive problem.

people have mostly dumped their pension money into buy-to-lets, which isn't portable money, and a mass sell-off of BTL's right now would only help crash prices. if house prices crsh the economy will crash by more.

[lost]

2 minutes ago, Neil said:

people have mostly dumped their pension money into buy-to-lets, which isn't portable money, and a mass sell-off of BTL's right now would only help crash prices. if house prices crsh the economy will crash by more.

I can definitely see this happening when they change the CGT rules. People rushing to get out before April.

[Neil]

3 minutes ago, lost said:

I can definitely see this happening when they change the CGT rules. People rushing to get out before April.

wouldnt be a bad thing to see BTLs sold off, problem is where does the money go insyead, houses qere the last  earning-investment.

[steviewevie]

I'd like to retire early.

EOM

[Neil]

terrible reports of massive bed blocking in hospitals, bristol gets flagged up as the worst, it happened to me because they were insisting on treatment that wasn't available (physiotherapy). i hated it and discharged myself in the end, which comes with the penalty of "refusing treatment" on my medical records..

[Neil]

7 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

I'd like to retire early.

EOM

i'd like to have a pension to retire on.

[cellar]

There was a big sell-off of BTLs in the last Tax Year, which generated some pretty hefty CGT income. 

Auto enrollment workplace pensions were one of the better things to come about, but as for incentivising people to save - its all part of not educating children in these sorts of things in school. The structures that exist around saving and investing seem so imposing at first so I imagine that deters a lot of people.

The people who are already saving are the ones with more money making use of the unfair system thats already in place. Ideally we would see CGT rates rise in line with Income Tax Rates, thresholds reduced, and tax relief on Pensions capped at 20%.

[Guest]

Haha the Tories aren’t going to do anything that’ll penalise their base support. Even if something looks decent the fine print will show it stitches up working people. 

[Guest]

More bits about Raab coming out. 

[steviewevie]

[steviewevie]

 

[steviewevie]

Paris is No.1 (European Stock Market)

[Guest]

 

 

Honeymoon period looks to be waning if not over already.

[Guest]

Yeah boiiii

[mattiloy]

On 11/13/2022 at 11:12 PM, steviewevie said:

also Michael Crick has been following all this...

https://pod.link/1496246490/episode/960ea097158c4ae9b9cf5cc01b90861e

Thanks for those. Also from the guardian yday. Authoritarian, antidemocratic.

I ask not that everyone hates Starmer. I personally cant help but hate injustice and the devious bullies who mete it out even if they wear a red rosette. Others might be different. Thats fine. Just that everyone is clear eyed about who he is and what he represents. If the choice people are making is, well he’s better than the alternative- thats understandable. But this Labour party leaves a hell of a lot to be desired. If I didn’t feel like that, I’d ask myself probably if I really cared about left wing politics or fighting injustice, and whether I was more concerned with simply cheering for the red team but each to their own.

[steviewevie]

40 minutes ago, mattiloy said:

Thanks for those. Also from the guardian yday. Authoritarian, antidemocratic.

I ask not that everyone hates Starmer. I personally cant help but hate injustice and the devious bullies who mete it out even if they wear a red rosette. Others might be different. Thats fine. Just that everyone is clear eyed about who he is and what he represents. If the choice people are making is, well he’s better than the alternative- thats understandable. But this Labour party leaves a hell of a lot to be desired. If I didn’t feel like that, I’d ask myself probably if I really cared about left wing politics or fighting injustice, and whether I was more concerned with simply cheering for the red team but each to their own.

"According to some of the candidates that have been excluded"

[Guest]

Keir Starmer will make a great Prime Minister and the country will be infinitely better off with him than it has been under 12 years of Tory rule. Starmer appears to be a man that cares about the issues facing the country, wants to help the working people and wants a fairer system where wealth gets shared around.

A Labour government with him in charge will also make sure we have better climate change policies in place which will help future generations and ensure jobs get created now.

A Labour government will look to getting corporations pay their share of taxes plus ending non-dom status and to invest properly in the health service whilst also looking at a National Care Service in time.

But you know he’s taking a tighter grip on selections of MPs so Lefty McLefterson might not be able to run, therefore he must be bad. 

[steviewevie]

1 hour ago, Ozanne said:

Keir Starmer will make a great Prime Minister and the country will be infinitely better off with him than it has been under 12 years of Tory rule. Starmer appears to be a man that cares about the issues facing the country, wants to help the working people and wants a fairer system where wealth gets shared around.

A Labour government with him in charge will also make sure we have better climate change policies in place which will help future generations and ensure jobs get created now.

A Labour government will look to getting corporations pay their share of taxes plus ending non-dom status and to invest properly in the health service whilst also looking at a National Care Service in time.

But you know he’s taking a tighter grip on selections of MPs so Lefty McLefterson might not be able to run, therefore he must be bad. 

all that doesn't make him immune from criticism (and I don't think will hurt his electoral chances, probably the opposite).

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

all that doesn't make him immune from criticism (and I don't think will hurt his electoral chances, probably the opposite).

Indeed. However just because he’s taken a tighter grip on certain MP selections he’s a bad guy.

[steviewevie]

Well, it will be pissing off a lot of Labour people on the left. Reading that Guardian article that Matiloy was referring to this bit at end sounds kind of credible...

There is also another part of the puzzle – though the polls look good for Labour, there is a significant chance Starmer will have a small majority or even a minority government. If he does, the calculation is that he cannot afford to be held to ransom by his own MPs, in the same way the Conservatives have collapsed four recent prime ministers.

From
Starmer takes aim at loose cannons with his tight control of Labour selections | Labour | The Guardian