Stealth Taxes

[Satch]

Shocked by this list.

1997
1. Council tax increased by 6.5pc
2. Mortgage tax relief cut
3. Pensions tax
4. Health insurance taxed
5. Health insurance taxed again
6. Fuel tax escalator up
7. Vehicle excise duty up
8. Tobacco duty escalator up
9. Stamp duty up for properties over £250,000
10. Corporation tax changes
11. New windfall tax on utilities

1998
12. Married couples' allowance cut
13. Tax on travel insurance up
14. Tax on casinos and gaming machines up
15. Fuel tax escalator brought forward
16. Tax on company cars up
17. Tax relief for foreign earnings abolished
18. Tax concession for certain professions abolished
19. Capital gains tax imposed on certain non-residents
20. Reinvestment relief restricted
21. Corporation tax payments brought forward
22 Higher stamp duty rates up
23. Some hydrocarbon duties up
24. Additional diesel duties
25. Landfill tax up
26. Council tax up by 8.6pc

1999
27. NIC earnings limit raised
28. NICs for self-employed up
29. Married couples' allowance abolished
30. Mortgage tax relief abolished
31. IR35: Taxation of personal services companies
32. Company car business mileage allowances restricted
33. Tobacco duty escalator brought forward
34. Insurance premium tax up
35. Vocational training relief abolished
36. Employer NICs extended to all benefits in kind
37. VAT on some banking services up
38. Premiums paid to tenants by landlords taxed
39. Duty on minor oils up
40. Vehicle excise duties for lorries up
41. Landfill tax escalator introduced
42. Higher rates of stamp duty up again
43. Council tax up by 6.8pc

2000
44. Tobacco duties up
45. Higher rates of stamp duty up again
46. Extra taxation of life assurance companies
47. Rules on controlled foreign companies extended
48. Council tax up by 6.1pc

2001
49. Council tax up by 6.4pc

2002
50. Personal allowances frozen
51. National Insurance threshold frozen
52. NICs for employers up
53. NICs for employees up
54. NICs for self-employed up
55. North Sea taxation up
56. Tax on some alcoholic drinks up
57. New stamp duty regime
58. New rules on loan relationships
59. Council tax up by 8.2pc

2003

60. VAT on electronically supplied services
61. IR35 applied to domestic workers
62. Betting duty change
63. Tax on red diesel and fuel oil up
64. Controlled foreign companies measures on Ireland
65. Vehicle excise duty up
66. Council tax up by 12.9pc

2004
67. New 19pc tax rate for owner-managed businesses
68. New tax on private use of company vans
69. UK transfer pricing introduced
70. Increase in rate of tax on trusts
71. Increase in tax on red diesel fuel
72. Increase in tax on other road fuels (including LPG)
73. Council tax up by 5.9pc

2005
74. Cancellation of stamp duty land tax relief for disadvantaged areas.
75. North Sea taxation doubled from 10pc to 20pc.
76. Zero per cent rate of corporation tax abolished
77. Council tax up by 4.1pc

2006
78. Clampdown on trusts and insurance policies commonly used to mitigate inheritance tax.
79. Increase in vehicle excise duty for SUVs.
80. Council tax up by 4.5pc

 

[glojo]

Hence the saying

Born free
Taxed till death

John

 

[C240Sport97]

the money for all that spending has to come from somewhere ...

 

[Alfie]

the money for all that spending has to come from somewhere ...

For spending read 'squandering'.

This government is very very very good at stealth taxation. They have raised the art of taxation to a new level. Along with lowering the level of responsibility expected from parents hence the introduction of the ASBO to enforce what decent parents used to do by their normal nature.

They are nothing but a bunch of hypocratic wasters that line their own pockets (or beds) with their chosen fancy (money, men or women).

The sooner they are out the better. The two things I will remember about the labour years are; The era of the ASBO and the era of the chav.

 

[Vips]

the money for all that spending has to come from somewhere ...

I wouldn't mind paying my hard earned money in to GB coffers, IF it was utilised appropriately.

Its, when they start wasting hard earned money on all the MP's up keeps; mistresses; asylum seeking scoundrels who havn't done a days work and never want; and generally wasting money on NHS projects that has had little planning only to be scrapped in the end!!! Thats when I get really cheesed off and feel like emigrating.

 

[nickg]

new labour = old labour + spin doctors

they still loath the wealthy/comfortably off and will p*ss our money away forever if we let them.
The levels of spending this govt is getting through is an absolute outrage.
Why the tories aren't pointing this out day after day I do not know.

 

[PJH]

2001
49. Council tax up by 6.4pc

So 2001 was the good year with only 1 tax increase.

2007 Home Information Pack

 

[DITTRICH]

I assume the 1997 pensions tax was actually the abolishion of ACT on dividends (which pension schemes could reclaim from Gordon). Impact £5billion a year x 8 years = £40billion or about 57 millenium domes at £700m each.
Les

 

[Benzowner]

They are nothing but a bunch of hypocratic wasters that line their own pockets (or beds) with their chosen fancy (money, men or women).

Same as the last lot then I am not sure of any elected Labour person being sent to jail, now, waht was the crime????? Fraud I beleive

The tobacco and fuel tax escalator was also introduced by the last Tory government, or had we forgotten Oh and I remember them increasing VAT from 15 to 17.5% to help with their pole tax **** up, only a 16.6% increase which hit everyone poor and well off.

Lets face it, all of the elected are just a bunch of............I'll let you fill in the dots If a Labour government is elected, the local councils are normally Tory or Lib Dem and vise versa. They in turn will try anything they can to make us, in their eyes, low lifes who should not have a brain, think the elected government are not doing very well. They are all just a bunch of hyprocrits imo

 

[SimonsMerc]

No taxation without representation!!

Oh, wait...

 

[Pietre]

Is that an invitation to a tea party somewhere!

 

[Satch]

And if certain Labour Party "thinkers" get their way a Wealth Tax will be with us as well as the overt Wealth Redistribution effort via the Tax Credits systems.

To some extent there already:
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/tax-ad...ticle.html?in_article_id=408226&in_page_id=78

and the proposals to reform the Poll Tax system are in effect yet another go.

But worth noting that every failing Labour Government has tried to introduce one. This is what Denis Healy was up to before that loathesome Labour Government was booted out by Margaret Thatcher:

"The Government are committed to redistribution of wealth, using the taxation system, and propose a wealth tax as part of an overall reform of the taxation of capital.

The tax would be charged on individuals only, and would be subject to the same tests of residence and domicile as apply to income tax. Tax would be charged on assets over £100,000, starting at 1%. Owner-occupied houses would be assessed but normal household and personal goods would not. Exemptions are envisaged for farmers, agricultural landlords, and collections of 'national, scientific, historic or artistic importance'.

They kept up the Wealth Tax line until 1989 when the "New Labour" policy review finally worked out it was not that good an idea. But now it is creeping back in again in various forms by Stealth.

 

[dougal74]

The thing I get most bitter about isn't the leadership (or lack thereof) or tax policies of any of the parties. It is that politics appears to be full of people who are pretty rubbish at what they do. From quangos to Govt Departments to the Civil Service, none of them seem to have any decent ideas and administrate services which are in an appalling state.
Any extra cash spent always seems to end up funding ever bigger "back room" teams without filtering down to where it is needed most.
I don't think a change of Government can really have much of an impact against this background. In any event, Conservative/Labour/Lib Dem they all lie and spend next to no time doing anything constructive.

P.S. Apologies to any members who are frustrated employees of any of these branches of government and who share everyone else's disappointment.

 

[pilotc182]

...and bless him (after raiding our pensions the moment he walked into the job) - he wants us all to save more for our old age

Variation on a theme: "Jesus saves"

Not with what the government leaves me with he couldn't

 

[Benzowner]

Variation on a theme: "Jesus saves"

Variation on an answere...............and Rooney knocks in the rebound

 

[DieselE]

The thing I get most bitter about isn't the leadership (or lack thereof) or tax policies of any of the parties. It is that politics appears to be full of people who are pretty rubbish at what they do.

Politicians used to be people who had spent some time in the real world and therefore had some idea of what was happening. Given the current levels of pay for MPs, too many people enter parliament straight from university. IMHO that's why they've forgotten that to spend money you first have to earn it. As you implied, all main parties are as bad as one another in this respect.

 

[Brian WH]

:

"The Government are committed to redistribution of wealth, .

Good idea, we will have some of theirs please.

 

[Satch]

This sort of thing happens far too often to be an accident. They were trying to slip that one through

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9559-2217763,00.html

 

[jdrrco]

2007 Home Information Pack

Don't get me started!

Anyone want to buy an estate agency?

 

[jeremytaylor]

2007 Home Information Pack

Speaking as a surveyor, I really cannot see this tax ever working. It will never be trusted by purchasers or their lenders and will rapidly become a worthless piece of paper. Not that I think it will get that far. I think there will never be enough 'Home Inspectors' to do the job, and the whole scheme will be shelved at the last minute. All the independant surveyors I speak to are sitting on the fence with this expectation, it is only the corporates who are being forced to get trained.

And then there's the HMO registration ...

On the wider tax theme, I don't object to paying tax as long as it is used efficiently and sensibly. Sure, government is by it's very nature an inefficient beast, but the waste and inefficiency that this government presides over is just horrendous. They are totally abusing any trust they might have had with us.