Top 5 financial things to do before labour get in?

[PushedDover]

Ah yes - because working hard 50-60hrs a week but not using hands and being higher tax rate = fair game then ?

[AllyM]

Labour abandons plans to bring back lifetime cap on tax-free pensions savings

https://www.ft.com/content/1555f473-0b8a-488e-9e47...

[tamore]

answer to the OP…. invest in renewables?

[GT03ROB]

xx99xx said:

Be more efficient you say? Well, all great until you realise public sector can't recruit or retain due to low salaries. Ah, sub contract out to private sector.....I e. Higher total costs, so less money to pay for permanent staff = recruitment and retention problem.

Really?? in 1999 there were approx 2.3m public sector employees...... in 2023 the figure stood at 3.6m. So what are we doing today that we didn't do in '99 to justify 1.3m people? You want to save money....some of your answer is here.

xx99xx said:

Also train travel and hotels. We have a centralised contract. I can get better rates from a public website but I'm not allowed to go off contract.

You understand how these centralised contracts work I assume? Most major organisations have them & the rate you pay is actually not the rate you pay. There will be scale of discounts refunded at the end of the year based on volume during the year. These discounts will be substantial.

the 100 you pay for a railfare through your centralised contract, which is available on public websites at 85, will receive a discount of 30 which is paid back to your organisation at the end of quarter or year. Hence what you see as 100 is actually 70.

[Porschegal]

Back to school fees. One child at state primary and one child going into Y10 in Sept to start GCSE's and I dont want to move her. School for many years didn't accept fees in advance but have just changed their policy to:

In line with guidance from the Independent Schools’ Bursars Association (ISBA), the School has taken legal advice in updating this Scheme. It is possible that any lump sum payment in advance settlement of future fees will remain subject to the tax laws in place at the time the sum is received by the School.

At first I dismissed this as I read it incorrectly but now I interpret it as if I pay a lump sum before 4th July or whenever Labour change implement the VAT charge I will not be subject to this.

[Michael_B]

“It is possible that” implies that another possibility is that it isn’t the case.

If I were running a private school, I’d also make vague statements about ‘possibilities’ to encourage a massive inrush of cash, always safe in the knowledge that if/when HMRC said ‘stop taking the piss, the VAT rate is that of when the services are delivered’ I could still demand more cash from my punter parents in the future.

[macron]

Yep, those 4 words are doing a LOT of heavy lifting.

The thread in the lounge has several stories of schools folding with very little advanced warning (as I have experienced too), so if they think they can shore up the balance sheet if some parents flounce, why would they not? Bet they're not refundable either.........

[OzzyR1]

PushedDover said:

Where labour have said no raises etc to ‘working people’ - is there a definition of ‘working people’.

Or to cut to the chase, a paye / take home number.

My assumption is that it will be the same old story, anyone earning above £40K is a target, more so if you are on £60K+.

Those on over £100K will use accountants to minimise exposure as they probably do already, and the top 1-3% will carry on regardless using & adapting the financial wrappers/mechanisms they already have in place.

All three main parties have stated they won't touch income tax, NI or VAT - the main government earners, while promising to increase spending across several areas.

The funding proposals I've seen rely on "best case" tax take which won't stack up in real life.

My bet would be that we all end up paying indirectly, whether by freezing income tax thresholds, changing tax relief on pension contributions, reducing the % tax-free-lump sum at 55, review of council tax banding, pay per mile road charging, restriction of limit on tax-free savings/ISAs, increase in fuel duty etc.

Those earning above average but less than 6-figures will likely be hit hardest in % terms.

Edited by OzzyR1 on Tuesday 11th June 01:50

[LowTread]

Yep, i'm going to get some lube ready.

Earning around 75k-80k including bonus gross through PAYE.

Sacrificing into SIPP to bring down to 60k to avoid the marginal rate that includes child benefit clawback.

Drive an EV so pay pennies to run it with no VED (until next year) and no fuel duty.

I'm getting ready for a good shafting.

TBH i'm quite happy to pay more in tax/NI for better services. That'd be fine. I completely disagree with the Tories wanting to cut taxes. What's the point if people can't get a doctor appointment, see a dentist, or have to drive around enormous pot holes.

But the trouble is, i don't think the NHS is fit for purpose anymore. There's too much admin and waste. Same with nearly all public services. We're terrible at delivering them, which is why it's mostly down to contractors to deliver services.

And as with things like HS2, as soon as a contractor knows it's the government paying their invoices, their rates climb up and everything suddenly becomes unaffordable.

[NickZ24]

So in the UK you can still believe a Politician?
Nowhere else you can, so are you sure?

[MiniPro3]

labour stamping down on tax avoidance does this mean cash Isa or cgt on primary residence ? Cant see this in their Manifesto

[alscar]

MiniPro3 said:

labour stamping down on tax avoidance does this mean cash Isa or cgt on primary residence ? Cant see this in their Manifesto

I think devil will be in the detail.
There are an awful lot of things that aren’t mentioned.
No doubt we shall all find out sometime after July 4th.

[MiniPro3]

alscar said:

MiniPro3 said:

labour stamping down on tax avoidance does this mean cash Isa or cgt on primary residence ? Cant see this in their Manifesto

I think devil will be in the detail.
There are an awful lot of things that aren’t mentioned.
No doubt we shall all find out sometime after July 4th.

Yep the UK Grafters, hard workers will be fked get the lube ready

[MiniPro3]

MiniPro3 said:

alscar said:

MiniPro3 said:

labour stamping down on tax avoidance does this mean cash Isa or cgt on primary residence ? Cant see this in their Manifesto

I think devil will be in the detail.
There are an awful lot of things that aren’t mentioned.
No doubt we shall all find out sometime after July 4th.

Yep the UK Grafters, hard workers will be fked get the lube ready

Is there a way of Bed and Breakfast your Home to avoid CGT ?

[fat80b]

alscar said:

I think devil will be in the detail.
There are an awful lot of things that aren’t mentioned.
No doubt we shall all find out sometime after July 4th.

This does seem to be the approach. As much as I dislike the Sky lady, her decoding of SKS's "we have no plans to" as part of last night's interviews was very good. I hope more people get to see through this.

It would be extremely disingenuous of Labour to spring a whole bunch of other tax rises immediately after they have won, but that does seem to be their tactic. A speccy article the other day suggested that they will play the "it was worse than we thought" line as soon as they can despite the fact that they can see all of the same data that the Tories can today (again rather disingenuous if they do but tactically astute)

I suspect the majority of people aren't quite as au fait with the political speak and won't be able to decode the "we have no plans to" as well as the "no increased taxes on working people" lines both of which leave a helluva lot of other areas where tax can and likely will be increased......

[Condi]

Is this "project fear"??

[alscar]

Condi said:

Is this "project fear"??

Probably just " project realistic ".

[Condi]

alscar said:

Condi said:

Is this "project fear"??

Probably just " project realistic ".

Possibly. But the same think tanks/people saying Labour are going to have to raise taxes are also saying the Torys would have to raise taxes, so it's amusing that people are assuming all sorts of terrible consequences for their finances under Labour whereas it is unlikely to be any different if the Tory's, Reform or the Lib Dems are in power.

[alscar]

Condi said:

Possibly. But the same think tanks/people saying Labour are going to have to raise taxes are also saying the Torys would have to raise taxes, so it's amusing that people are assuming all sorts of terrible consequences for their finances under Labour whereas it is unlikely to be any different if the Tory's, Reform or the Lib Dems are in power.

Problem is that Labour are well Labour so have rather more form for this.
For their grandiose plans there isn't just the cash available but agree it is also not for the Tory's.
But Labour are going to win as it stands and their manifesto contains virtually nothing about what will be their cash raisers only their ideas's.
Now that they have supposedly ruled out a return to the "same" LTA is about the only thing we know for sure on Pensions although it is also perfectly feasible that there will be then nuances to this.
When Ms Reeves announced there would be no new taxes I'm sure she's right but again won't stop other existing taxes from rising.
Be interesting to look back around July next year and see what actually has been the impact.

[Hustle_]

We have guaranteed income tax rises under the current mechanism every year until 2028 courtesy of the conservatives, they are relying on basically ignorance to get that through under the radar.

None of the parties can campaign on tax cuts the way things are. The conservatives attempt looks disingenuous.