Emergency Budget

I love the outrage on 20%vat - howmany people felt the change from 15% to 17.5% - its going to be the same again - besides its lower than Ireland and other places. Yes its effectively means that we're going to pay more.
We've got a pay freeze for two years - Oh joys - so that will totall probably excess of £10k drop for me in the past 5 years

I dont agree with the VAT rise but we need to cut back on spending, though its gonna hurt...

To be honest, it could have been a lot worse.

I am relieved they haven't put fuel duty up as we are already paying £1.23 a litre for petrol and even if they had only put it up a penny, well that would still cost businesses such as haulage a fortune and they are already struggling.

Originally Posted by Quedos

I love the outrage on 20%vat - howmany people felt the change from 15% to 17.5% - its going to be the same again - besides its lower than Ireland and other places. Yes its effectively means that we're going to pay more.
We've got a pay freeze for two years - Oh joys - so that will totall probably excess of £10k drop for me in the past 5 years

Because hardly any of the shops lowered their prices when the VAT dropped, they just pocketed the extra 2.5% and then played the "No VAT increase" when it went back up, when really, it was just staying the same price that the consumer paid.

Now it will either be the companies losing that 2.5% profit, or us. And guess what... It'll be us.

I don't mind though, it's a tax on spending, so now is clearly a good time to save. Don't get me wrong, we all like low taxes, but I'd rather we stop paying £10,000 interest a minute or whatever stupid figure it is.

[timwilky]

Well fuel will go up as a result of the extra vat.

But remember that is recoverable by business. So it only joe public that will endure that. Increases in duty instead would have had an impact upon business

The way I see it MBK is that with Labour more people had a job! This means they could pay tax and less were on the doll!

The increase in spending was a must to keep the GB market going.

Bare in mind that people without a job will become depressed!! Remember from history the Thatcher years? And I say from history as we are not that old to have lived through it.

I personally prefer to have a job and a house and pay higher taxes than no job, no house and higher taxes.

Originally Posted by timwilky

Well fuel will go up as a result of the extra vat.

But remember that is recoverable by business. So it only joe public that will endure that. Increases in duty instead would have had an impact upon business

Yeh, that's what I was getting at.

Originally Posted by timwilky

Well fuel will go up as a result of the extra vat.

But remember that is recoverable by business. So it only joe public that will endure that. Increases in duty instead would have had an impact upon business

And lets not forget the majority of us work for someone!! So it's me that's gonna hurt

[gruntygiggles]

Originally Posted by EssexDave

Meh.
It was all expected. It's not as bad (as of yet) for me as I expected. I work in the public sector and we have a lot of cuts coming, but are still unsure as to what exactly it means for our office and how it will directly affect us.

The increase in personal tax allowance is a bit blah because of the VAT increase obviously it's not a large help.

I personally wouldn't have minded a little more duty on cigarettes, alcohol and fuel. When I say a little I'm talking maybe 1p on fuel and cigarettes and 2-5p on booze. Purely because, look at the amount of debt. The faster you pay the debt, the less interest you pay. (And I am a smoker/drinker)

It's not that they are not increasing tax on fuel/alcohol and tobacco....they are just not doing it yet, they will be looking at this again in more detail. I think they said September.

Originally Posted by Milky Bar Kid

To be honest, it could have been a lot worse.

I am relieved they haven't put fuel duty up as we are already paying £1.23 a litre for petrol and even if they had only put it up a penny, well that would still cost businesses such as haulage a fortune and they are already struggling.

They are also looking at doing something to cut any increases that are due to come in rural areas to help farmers smaller rural businesses.

600+ - The VAT hike was well to be expected and yes, you'll probably notice it a little, but what you'll find is that stay competitive, a lot of retailers will start sales and cuts and pay the VAT for you on a load of things, just to keep people going in the shops next year, so you won't just suddenly notice it go up, just like you probably didn't notice it going back up to 17.5% from 15%.

It could have been a lot worse, so don't be too angry. Not doing this could mean a second recession and then you'll be looking at us having a higher national debt, more unemployment and it will take even longer to get out of.

Originally Posted by 600+

The way I see it MBK is that with Labour more people had a job! This means they could pay tax and less were on the doll!

The increase in spending was a must to keep the GB market going.

Bare in mind that people without a job will become depressed!! Remember from history the Thatcher years? And I say from history as we are not that old to have lived through it.

I personally prefer to have a job and a house and pay higher taxes than no job, no house and higher taxes.

If Labour has come into power this time round, the jobs would still have gone. Tories and Lib Dem are just trying to clean up the mess left behind.