I have to say Im quite suprised by the complete lack of comment about yesterdays Budget here in 'Heavy Chat' . Does anyone have any thoughts on it at all ?

It seems like pensioners are going to take yet another hit. Offensively ( in my opinion) called a 'Granny Tax '.

Fuel Duty will rise again ( delayed until August, just in time for the peak period of holiday traffic for the majority who can no longer afford to go abroad, so take to the roads ), and thats despite record high fuel prices already.

Why is it that tax reductions ( increase in personal allowance for example ) are always delayed until next year ? April 2013 in this case.

Have we really just reached a point where we are just resigned to it and can no longer be bothered to comment ?

4.5 million pensioners in this Country must be realy chuffed, who I would think will be having a rethink who they vote for next time around, this idiot realy does think turkeys vote for Christmas, he like the idiots before him, has not the balls to tackle immigration handouts, but takes the easy option of the aged who have paid in the longest, and so little political muscle an easy target! maybe just maybe this is the final nail in the Tory coffin. So what next? we cant afford Labour, get kicked in the nuts by Conservatives to pacify the Lib/Dems, for me that takes out the big three, this ensures a low turnout next time round for the old folk who will pay extra on fuel with less income whammy.

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Its not always the biggest and the bestest, its them that make the least mistakes.

I must agree that the 3 main parties are near making themselves unelectable.

There are quite a few major dosh savings that could be made if they only understood common sense:

Stop sending out millions in foreign aid when we need it here.
Stop housing and paying immigrants who have never contributed to 'the system'

to mention just 2

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Lets be careful out there !

Several parts of the budget speech that stood out for me. But one part of his speech really takes the biscuit, that was when Osborne described those who rightly evade paying tax, as “morally repugnant”. Every year I have to resist the HMRC's attempt to over tax me. HMRC know they are wrong every time, but every year they try the same stunt. Every year they deliberately seek to wrongfully deprive pensioners of their legitimate income and resources. Their behaviour is morally repugnant.

Generally speaking politicians tend to have a distorted sense of morality. Some of them are morally bankrupt. And an awful lot of them consistently behave in a manner that is morally repugnant to those of us who are compelled to pay their way.

On the upside, Osborne has now given us the political precedent, and implied freedom, to describe certain political policies as morally repugnant.

My husband got taxed on his small company pension for almost a year before we got it sorted out. He had to spend ages on the phone talking to people who just didn't seem interested. He got it back in the end but as it was his only income it never should have been taken in the first place.

These 80 and 90 grand a year bods who know best whats good for 6 and 7 grand a year pensioners can not possibly know what life at the Sharpe end is like, work all your life for a comparative pittance, squirrel a few bob away, to make life just that little bit easier, when you are unable to work, and start getting a bit back from your lifetimes endeavour, to have your pocket picked by the very people you elected to look after your interests, does it pay to conserve a bit, not according to these conservatives,
now according to the buck passing shambles of Tory administration, it is to pacify the Lib/Dems. so at least now we know what they are all about, I was bought up to believe democracy was government by the people, for the people, what we have is Government by some of the people, supported by ideologist who want to govern at any price, I think, and hope, they get punished at the polls, and this suicide letter highlights of the budget, is proof that another set of crooks is needed to Govern.

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Its not always the biggest and the bestest, its them that make the least mistakes.

Sunshine. That is the norm. I have had the same problem for the last 5 years. HMRC know all about my income, but every year the deliberately over-estimate my income by about 10% and tax me accordingly. It usually takes me to about August/September before HMRC finally agree that they are over-taxing me. I spend endless hours on the phone and write numerous letters in the process of trying correct HMRC's 'mistakes'.

Report is from 2006 but as Westonman highlights the political parties are at it like everyone else. I suspect the 'morally repugnant' soundbite will do just that come back to bite him when the skeletons start coming out of the Tory cupboards.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labours-tax-dodge-on-sale-of-hq-saved-163210000-stamp-duty-427849.html



I also take the view that the term is not aimed at the pensioner in the shires who phones and complains to HMRC as yet again they have cocked up his/her personal allowance or taken account of a perfectly legitimate expense which can be written down against tax but against the likes of Geldof and other extremely wealthy people who use corporate envelopes to purchase property in London with the express reason of avoiding stamp duty payments.

And lets not forget Ken Livingstone in the press of late. To counter that you can rest assured most Tory MP's are also using obscure rules (not available to the rest of us) to also avoid tax and that Nick Clegg is in his own right very,very rich (as an ex investment banker Boooooooo) so will also have been at it.

Whilst I don't begrudge pensioners a thing (I will be one myself in just over a decade) there is no denying that those who were prudent in so far as they purchased property and enjoyed the benefits of rampant HPI over the last few decades not to mention the returns they have got back on stock market investments in the (general) Bull market of the same period have done exceptionally well indeed.
It has not been named the baby boomer generation lightly.

A twenty someone today will never be able to achieve the same position at retirement and will most likely have to work into their 70's to be able to achieve any pension whatsoever, yet are being asked to pay today ever increasing taxes part of which go to support the older generations.

There is no getting away from the fact that there are reasonably wealthy pensioners (the smart ones) who took advantage (as per my explanation above and I don't knock them for this) of the situation and are now sitting quite pretty. These are the ones who pay tax and will be subject to the changes in allowances and lets face these are only being re-aligned with what the working population pay as for years those over 65 have enjoyed more attractive personal allowances.

On the other end of the scale we have Mr and Mrs Smith who didn't see the benefit of HPI as they stayed in their council flat forsaking right to buy, never took out private pension provision or invested in equities and now only get the bog standard pension. These people will pay very little or no income tax at all.

So true. The message to the younger generation couldn't be clearer. Don't save, savings will be destroyed by engineered inflation and sub-inflation levels of interest; don't pay into a pension scheme, it will be plundered and destroyed by government; don't try to be prudent and self-sufficient, you will be punished. And finally, don't place any trust in any politician of any party.

This is from the mail website.

Correct me if I am wrong but how are pensioners worse off today than they were yesterday? Looking at those charts only those who earn over £120,000 a year will pay more tax.

I cannot find the married pensioner 65 - 74 chart but will continue to look.