Income Tax

[blythburgh]

I close hotmail and get MSN which I browse as it is useful to see that the right wing press are saying. The Daily Express had a bit about tax saying many pensioners are now having to pay it because of the 10% increase.

Some are saying pensioners should not be taxed on their pension. I say why not? Pensioners are the group most likely to own their own homes without a mortgate and most likely not to have dependent children. So why should one group on the same income pay tax but another be exempt from paying tax?

What is wrong IMHO is the freezing of the basic rate tax threshold. If that had continued to be raised each year the pensioners and those on the lowest income would not now be required to pay tax. Food inflation is pushing 20% and the poorer you are the higher the % of your income goes on food. So a double whammy for the poorest people of any age.

The Govt in the last budget the highest rate tax payers got help but the lowest income people got no help with the tax they are having to pay

[pabenny]

Freezing the basic rate threshold is a way of increasing taxes without appearing to do so. In economist jargon it's called fiscal drag.

The Express is just pandering to the predjudices of its readership. It's a somewhat disingenuous to complain about paying (more) tax when you have more income.

[expressman33]

Food inflation is pushing 20% and the poorer you are the higher the % of your income goes on food. So a double whammy for the poorest people of any age.

I'd say nearer 40%

[blythburgh]

Freezing the basic rate threshold is a way of increasing taxes without appearing to do so. In economist jargon it's called fiscal drag.

The Express is just pandering to the predjudices of its readership. It's a somewhat disingenuous to complain about paying (more) tax when you have more income.

Is it just pandering to predjucices? The poorest are paying more tax because the level you start paying has not been increasing. But the richest have had their pension rules changed dramatically.

And do not get me started on how benefits are not changed. For instance Guaranteed Pension Credit stops when your savings top £10,000. When this level was set a couple without a home they own could afford two decent funerals and leave money to their loved ones with that amount of savings. Now 2 funerals with the cost of a headstone or other memorial, a wake etc as well as the basic funeral costs would take just about all of the £10,000. Not sure how much it would be today if inflation linked. But in the last year alone it would be at least an extra thousand pounds.

So the poorest are hit but if you are rich enough to have to pay capital gains tax every year that is inflation linked.

[blythburgh]

And MSN always has Express headlines about the amount of money pensioners get and how big the increase will be. But those figures only apply to those who got the state pension in the last 7 years, surely the majority of pensioner retired before the pension changes. Older pensioners get paid far less but you have to go down the article to find out how much the older pensioner gets.

Odd when I would say the older you are the more likely you are to read the Express. Surely the younger right of centre tabloid readers would choose The Daily Mail.