Todays budget is complete and utter crap.

This labour government is more has more Tory values than the tories themselves!

Nice to see businesses get a 2p cut in taxes - 'new' labour sucks.

Yes, as you may have heard, income tax rates have been lowered 2p down to 20p and the 10p lower tax rate has been scrapped.

This may sound good, but what does it mean?

It means anyone earning less than £14,000 a year means you will pay more tax, up to an extra £90 per year.

Infact, anyone earning less that £17,000 a year will be taxed more than before. Mr Brown says that even though this might be a blow for people with lower earnings, they should more than claw it back from working tax credits.

This is all good, but myself for example, I am earning less than £14,000 a year, and I cannot apply for working tax credits because I am not over 25 nor do I have kids.

Anyone earning between about £17,000 and £40,000 a year will be better off, by up to £50

And finally, those earning £43,000 or more will pay around £20 a year more in tax.

Also bad news for anyone who drinks, smokes or drives (thats most of us then.)

Beer and cider up 1p, wine 5p, 'gas guzzling' car tax increasing up to £300 this year and £400 next, 11p increae on cigarettes and finally 2p petrol increase in October.

So it seems the only people better off are businesses and people earning between £17,000 and £40,000.

Gordon Brown, You're a Grrr!

Haha, after being annoyed, that censoring has tickled me "Grrr!"

I like it mark lol

What it is meant to say though is - Gordon Brown, You're a T-W-A-T!

It had to be said.

well i guess that us all stuffed then budgets is always a load of crap anyway grrrrrr

It could have been a lot worse.

Car tax

As for transport, Mr Brown announced that fuel duty would go up 2p a litre in 2007 and 2008 and 1.8p in 2009 - although this year's increase is to be delayed till October.

The rise in VED for Band G cars - which include not only 4x4s but also some large people carriers and estate cars - was accompanied by a £10 rise for Band F vehicles, the next most polluting cars.

But while the least polluting Band A cars will continue to pay no VED, the next cleanest in Band B will see their rate cut to £35 from £50 for diesels and £40 for petrol cars.

And biofuels, which Mr Brown said helped fulfil the government's obligations on renewable fuels, would have their 20p a litre duty reduction extended to 2010, with the 40p a litre reduction for biogas extended to 2012.

--------------------
Drivers of the biggest and most polluting vehicles are to see car tax almost double to £400 by April 2008,

I guess they are Band G ?

I s'pose it could have been a little worse, but it could have been far far better too.

Fair enough, an increase in fuel duty may be for the good of the planet, and thats a good thing.

However, how many of us actually drive biofuel and lpg powered cars!?

Well you know when a cat fails on a car and it smells
like fart?

A Bio car will smell like pigs shit

It all looks pretty good to me hehe.

not too bad for me that, 2p up in petrol (could be worse,remember when it was over 90p a litre and at one point over a quid)

whats the car tax gonna be on a 1996 1.8??? cos i pay the same tax level as a 1996 4 litre V8 off roader

matty , what the hell are you going on about, do you enjoy some tit takeing 3 quarters of your wage and spending it on fuccking asylum seekers and domes and other utter shite

cos its good for people who own businesses

And im not really bothered about the increase on petrol cost's, as its always between the 85p and 95p mark for the last 18 months or so anyway.

You won't be saying that when the tax massively increases on 1.4L cars and above (hey, anything can happen with this government)

To be fair to Labour (and I certainly don't support them in any way), it don't matter who is in power, the taxes rises will always be like this.

Don't forget inflation and the stregnth of the pound means wages will also go up.

do you not realise that they take 25% of your wage to start with, then they take nother 17.5% on any thing you buy , thats includings electricity, water and gas then they rapes you onanything else, its wrong, i got charged the othorday for importing something from the staes, fair enought they wanted to tax me on it, but the fuckers even wanted to tax me on the fuckking postaged that was already paid for. how the fook can that be good. this tax has to stop some were.

Tax rises will probably increase no matter who is in power like you say Matty.

But the difference between voting Labour than anyone else is that Labour (old Labour anyway) were about supporting the working class. And yeah Matty, that includes you.

Old labour always tried to tax the rich more to help benifit the poor. However, the New Labour government is more like the Tory government if not worse.
They removed clause 4 of the Labour Party Constitution, which basically states that they will do their best to look after the workers.

Clearly, by increasing tax for lower earners far more than the increase for higher earners is not support for the working class.



Not necessarily. Generally, 99.9% of companies and the bosses look after themselves, never the workers.

I know for a fact I won't see an increase in my wages due to inflation rates increasing.

Also, if you look closely at the figures on tax and earnings, you will notice that the New Labour government is looking after it's MPs.

I'll show you a few examples and you can decide for yourself:

More support for families with children - Let's see, Gordon Brown has a family and a new born. Ahh, so too does Mr Blair. What a surprise.

Tax on ciggarettes, wine and beer has increased, however, tax on spirits have remain frozen - AFAIK, Mr Brown and Mr Blair don't smoke or drink wine or beer, but being middle class citizens, they probably enjoy a glass of brandy after a 'hard days work' (pfft!).

Andy, fuel and power VAT is 5% matey, not 17.5%, which the UK had to get consent from the EU to charge as its lower then the standard EU minimum rate.

Yes, we live in a tax nation, but so does every other developed western country. And before people start crying about taxation being so high, its even worse in many EU countries. The current minimum rate of VAT within the EU (which applies to any EU member state, including ourselves) is 15.00%. Only a few countries in Europe actually have lower VAT rates then the UK.

In Scandanavia for instance the standard rate is the maximum EU allowance of 25.00%, in Holland its 19.00%, in France its 19.6%, in Germany its 19.00%, in Italy its 20.00%, so you see the UK VAT rate is actually low.

The only countries with a lower rate of VAT are Spain at 16.00% and Cyprus and Luxembourg at the base rate of 15.00%. Of course there is region's like the Isle Of Man and Gibralter which are immune from VAT and therefore charge nothing.

Learn something everyday

yer 5% on fuel, i mean 17.5 on every thing else, ie even a loaf of bread is subjected to vat, take a walk round cost co and you ll soon see what has tax on it and what doesn t.

You still have to pay tax from costco mate. It's only the companies who buy from them who can redeem back the VAT.

But it just shows you how much money companies are making - buying at wholesale price and selling at retail price.

You see why privatisation isn't a good thing? Profit is all they're bothered about.

I am about £50 a year better of according to the calculator on the BBC

The calculator shows I will be better off too in terms of wages.

However, It'll cost more than the gain on my wages (twice as much more infact) to run my car paying for tax and petrol.

If you want to calculate your savings/losses you can find the BBC calculator here

according to that there calculator we're going to be up just over 100 pounds. thats alright aint it, plus im getting 2 more pay rises between now and may and i've only just had one this month. was on 21700 in feb and by may i'll be on 24700. wooohoooo

just domne calculator and i'll be around £200 a year better off !

Looks like its actually turned out quite good for a lot of CW users then...