BOOM!!!! Financial Meltdown!

[nightstalker100]

The home buyers were also greedy, don't forget that.

What goes around comes around.

Never looked at it that way.

Yeah come to think it alot of the people, especially couples, i know have rushed to buy property (keeping up with jones) and now theyre buggered. Kinda glad all my 2 degrees have gotten me are **** jobs that makes buying a house (or anything else for that matter) impossible, - i'd hate to start worrying about mortgage repayments and what not

[Matt]

Cutting VAT - all well and good but when I've read the estimated saving to the average family is around ?10 a week, that's not really much is it? Obviously for those people on the absolute breadline that might mean the difference between eating and not, but given that the government is going to have to raise taxes later to compensate for all this I can't say I'm too fussed.

Err? How the **** is a 2.5% VAT reduction going to save ME ?10 a week? Quick calculations - that would mean I used to spend ?470 a week, including VAT; now at 15%, that would be ?460 a week.

Now you don't pay VAT on everything, so considering what you, does the average person really spend ?470 a week?

[Matt]

BTW that's not ranting at your Spatial. I've had enough of the countries mismanagement.

I'm of the opinion this VAT cut is a big ****ing joke. Next year they'll have to raise it to 20% to get back the lost earnings, and once it's at 20% it won't come back down.

IMO VAT is a complete ****ing joke. I've been taxed on my earnings already; taxing me on the remained I choose to spend is a travesty.

/me packs his bags and is leaving this country....

[JB@XL]

I'm of the opinion this VAT cut is a big ****ing joke. Next year they'll have to raise it to 20% to get back the lost earnings, and once it's at 20% it won't come back down.

He has already made a plan to recoup the money.


Chancellor Alistair Darling today promised "fair and responsible steps" to protect businesses and families.
Mr Darling cut VAT from 17.5% to 15% for 13 months in his pre-Budget report but top rate tax will rise to 45% and all National Insurance contributions will go up 0.5% from 2011.
Duties on alcohol, tobacco and petrol are to be increased so they will offset the VAT reduction.




Can always rely on the boozers,smokers and drivers to keep the money flowing in.

[Grapple Convoy]

IMO VAT is a complete ****ing joke. I've been taxed on my earnings already; taxing me on the remained I choose to spend is a travesty.

/me packs his bags and is leaving this country....

Hate to break it to you, but most countries have sales taxes too. Look at our cousins in the rest of Europe, for example. 15% value added tax is low by EU standards.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value_Added_Tax#EU_States

[Matt]

Just because other countries do it, doesn't make it right. Double dipping in to people's hard earned money is wrong. I'm sure I'm not the only worker fed up with paying for a whole section of the population who do not want to work.

[Grapple Convoy]

That "whole section of the population" (which is still a minority) could include you one day, if you are laid off in a recession and there are no jobs available, if you have a serious health problem develop or have inflicted upon you, or become unemployable through old age, or even retire early. You obviously haven't lived on benefits if you think it's cushy. It's relentless hell and crushing poverty. In this country at least, as by European standards we have quite a punitive and ungenerous welfare state.

[Darwock]

I'm kind out of disconnected from the situation back home, being an ex-pat, but can anyone tell me why my mortgage was 20 quid cheaper last month? Surely interest rates aren't going down??? With all the crap that's happening the last thing I expected was for my mortgage payments to drop.

OK - forget that question, I just read back through the thread and saw that rates were indeed cut. Very surprising.

Sales tax in Japan is 5% and people are complaining that the current PM is talking about raising it to 7% or so... when I tell them it's 17.5 back home they can't believe it lol

[Brats]

Just because other countries do it, doesn't make it right. Double dipping in to people's hard earned money is wrong. I'm sure I'm not the only worker fed up with paying for a whole section of the population who do not want to work.

You don't realise that VAT is actually good for your point. If there were no VAT, income tax would need to be much higher (in some european countries it is much higher) which means people who work will pay a much higher proportion of tax compared to those that don't.

[Holio]

It's the whole spend now, pay later mentality I aint too fond off by this government, tis like a raging gambler thinking, this time, I bet big and it'll come off and I wont ever do it again. I dont know how they think they can increase borrowing so much that it will bring the country out of a recession, especially considering almost half the country is already employed by the public sector.

As for putting the upper rate of tax back until 2011, tis stupid, only gives the top earners accountants' time to think how they can get around paying more tax. All I know is, a 2.5% drop aint going to make me think, oh I'll spend more.

[ChrisF]

I'm kind out of disconnected from the situation back home, being an ex-pat, but can anyone tell me why my mortgage was 20 quid cheaper last month? Surely interest rates aren't going down??? With all the crap that's happening the last thing I expected was for my mortgage payments to drop.

In the words of my bank...

On Thursday 6th November 2008, the Bank of England reduced the base rate to 3.00% from 4.50%

[abigsmurf]

I have to say. What the hell is the point of a temporary 2.5% drop in VAT?

Are we supposed to believe things will be priced at £1.94 rather than the golden £1.99 price point? VAT has been solid for so long now that few high street stores can easily adjust for it (the easy solution is to apply a 2.5% discount to all purchases but I doubt many places will do it).

It's a pathetic drop that will only have an impact on very expensive goods like TVs and PCs (games consoles RRPs won't be affected). These are goods not manufactured in the UK at all, imports. How is that supposed to help our economy?!?

I'm out of a job mid december anyway (orders at my company basically stopped and they've gone under), I'm not going to see any benefit of this.

[ChrisF]

Well.... any saving is a good saving, surely? Plus 15% is the lowest it can be under EU law, so you can thank the pen pushers in Brussles for that being the best we can expect.

[abigsmurf]

A saving which isn't noticable followed by a price hike which will be. Shops may not decrease prices for a minor VAT cut but you can sure as hell bet they'll any rise later on as an excuse to put up prices.

[Ian(not Ian)]

Smoke 'n' Mirrors the lot of it.
The pair of them have just bamboozled the nation into accepting more tax rises on NI, tufties, beer, and most importantly petrol. The 2.5% VAT 'windfall' is a farce and they know it, but they needed to announce something they felt the media would see as beneficial to the nation. The BBC fell for it and reported it as 'historic'.

In a years time they'll be at it again, re-instate the VAT and chuck more tax rises in petrol and car-tax into the mix. Re-instating the VAT will actually be a tax increase when it returns.

Then, in a blindingly cynical vote-grabbing gamble they'll lie about the 'recovery' being on-track and will recind the planned increase in the over 150K earner's tax rise to 45%. Breathing a sigh of relief 'middle' Britain will vote Labour back in for saving us from the World recession with their prudent fiscal values.

Bollocks to the pair of them.