Wednesday, 22 November 2017

I told you so

The budget was indeed a non-event.

12 comments:

Dan said...

More a "steady as she goes" sort of a budget, plus the Scottish idiots have enough rope to hang themselves thoroughly now.

Dirty old diesels have an incentive to clean up their act, and us chaps running new units on PCP contracts don't get hit with an unnecessary bill.

Gordon "goldie" Brown's infernal fiscal drag on income tax has now been reversed, dropping mere peasants such as I out of higher rate tax.

All in all, quite a nice budget.

Steven_L said...

Excellent title, just what I was waiting for. Now, where shall we begin?

ThomasBHall said...

Happily nothing on self employed/ PSC arrangements, and happily nothing on lowering VAT thresholds.

Anonymous said...

@Dan

Less of the "the Scottish idiots" if you don't mind. We don't all vote SNP.

Timbo614 said...

Not quite a non-event. Many have been urging the Tories to do something for young(er) people to tempt them into the fold. Surely the stamp duty changes/abolishment and extra funds for various schems score on that front?

dustybloke said...

Whoa! Lets help house prices continue to rise.

All politicians know that if a punter knows his house price is increasing by 20% a year, all is well with the world.

And George stopped those nasty rentier parasites by disallowing interest for tax deduction. Pity their borrowing costs are minute, but , hey, it's the thought that counts.

Penseivat said...

How about cancelling stamp duty on those, such as I, who wish to downsize and leave a family sized home to those who need it. I still can't afford to live in my present home yet can't afford to move to a smaller home with no extra capital. House blocking? I plead guilty through poverty.

andrew said...

Imo, boring is good.
Govts need to stop changing things that don't need to change. Stop doing things that don't need to be done.

Starbucks announce a cold filtered caramel mocha chocca christmas pud latte
C.f. clever and innovative.

Jolly good and hurrah for capitalism and best of luck to those who want it.

The difference is that if Starbucks was a good i would end up paying for that coffee even if I didn't want it.

So to the govt : stop doing new things unless you really have to

Electro-Kevin said...

Pen Sieve - My cunning plan is to convert my house into three flats and have grow-your-own doctors live in them.

They'll have free rent but I want free treatment and for them to wipe my bum on the occaisions that I forget to do it myself.

Electro-Kevin said...

"Starbucks announce a cold filtered caramel mocha chocca christmas pud latte
C.f. clever and innovative."

I wonder who paid for the publicity push that is "Three coffees a day cures cancer".

They're not off-shoring their tax affairs - we owe THEM money for saving the NHS.

Anonymous said...

@ThomasBHall - not quite. In the small print there will be a review next year.

The taxman thinks making everyone employees is a clever thing to do, of course what it will actually mean is more work outsourced abroad.

The plan may not be to export high-paying, high-tech jobs whilst importing low-paying, low-tech ones, but that will be the eventual consequence.

Why provide a developer a job for a project that'll last 18 months, when you can simply outsource it to a decent offshored outfit and reduce risk and cost?

Meanwhile Deliveroo and Uber et al find their own way around it.

Reduced income, NI and corp tax receipts. And, of course, productivity.

Everyone will be poorer, but the taxman will feel better.

Anonymous said...

Why provide a developer a job for a project that'll last 18 months, when you can simply outsource it to a decent offshored outfit and reduce risk and cost?

Being doing this for years as UK based developers think they have a god given right to charge and arm and a leg - and be thanked for it.

Russians are particularly good across the spectrum though they do come with the caveat you may get more code than you asked for ;-)