If Labour raises taxes what will you think?

A. It’s gotta be done, but they need to reign in the spending too, as others have said.

A

for those saying B what other option do people suggest?

🙄

So what I've understood from this thread is most people agree with more taxation as long as no one has to pay it or if someone has to it should be someone else, Although there has been a couple of notable exceptions

A

A, but they need to put the burden on those who can afford it most.

Increasing income tax isn't going to improve productivity which is what we need to do. It's also not going to improve public services, you would need to raise a lot more for that.

B. Especially if they increase welfare handouts. For example, if they scrap the 2 child benefit cap.

A, and this.

Only half the Welfare budget is spent on pensioners. Ie people too old to work, many of whom have paid extra tax all their lives on the understanding that they would be given a pension in their old age. When they are too old to work.

The other half of the Welfare budget is spent on adults of working age. Who aren't working, or are working less than they could be.

So confusing to decide which half to reduce the Welfare spending on. 🙄

According to a YouGov poll reported last week, only 14% of the public support an increase in VAT and 22% support an increase in basic tax or national insurance. We do seem to have quite a distinct bubble on MN though.

"The initial budget means more tax rises are needed. They got it wrong and will probably need more and more each year."

By far the biggest political decision we made as country was to trade economic growth for sovereignty. This has an ongoing annual impact. Coupled with demographic pressures it meant that the Tories raised the tax burden to the highest levels since ww2.

Labour will now have to increase them further. Despite this public services are still underfunded

It doesn't really matter who got in, or even who gets in next. They will have to cut benefits, public services and raise taxes ( income or stealth)

It wouldn’t be so bad if they were flagrantly wasting everyone’s hard earned money

Motability users pay a deposit towards the majority of cars, these deposits have greatly increased in the last few years, I paid £99 for a Seat Leon when I had one, now the deposit for the same car is nearly £4k, for a BMW or an Audi the deposit is a minimum of £5k, some as high as £9k. Disabled drivers often pick higher spec cars because the features on them are essential for them to be able to use them, like electric seats, electonic handbrake, voice commands for things like heater/air conditioning etc, you pay more for an automatic, prices are going up for electric or plug in hybrid cars. Doesn't anyone realise that the more cars dealership sell to motability users, the higher their profits are & the more Corporation Tax they pay, cars that are built in this country like Mini, Toyota etc create jobs at the manufacturers & also jobs at companies making the parts & materials to build the cars. Lots of car dealerships wouldn't survive without Motability in the current financial climate as less people are buying brand new cars, it's not just the sales force, it's the technicians & mechanics who maintain the vehicles as well. At the end of the lease the cars are sold & that money is ploughed back into the scheme. There are very few cars with zero deposit now, years ago there was a lot of choice of cars with zero or maybe £99 deposit, that number is shrinking every year.

It is political suicide to increase taxes on working people while spending billions to house illegal immigrants in luxury hotels and pay benefits to people who are playing the system by claiming to have fake illnesses, disabilities, anxiety & depression.

Cut all overseas aid
Revoke the laws that make governents responsible for housing/maintaining asylum seekers. They are stealing our taxes from the moment they land.
Evict them from hotels/accommodation and make them destitute
Defund the human rights lawyers and charities who help them
Deport them to the Falkland Islands where its wet cold and dreary and see how they like it there

Should save a few billions

Corporation tax is only raised on the profit a company makes, no profit, no tax. Punitive taxation drives foreign investors away, and encourages existing companies to not show a profit, by investing or spending the money more "creatively".

UK Corporation tax is currently 25%, which is already 17% higher than the European average (21.3%), the main effects of raising further would be :

1. Discourage investment in the UK
2. Increase consumer prices
3. Increase tax receipts in the short term

Endlessly raising taxation eventually strangles the economy to the point where you don't actually raise anymore revenue. This is known in economics as the Laffer curve, many economists believe we are there already.

These are often sighted as the indicators

• Disincentives to work and invest: High tax rates can discourage individuals from working more or investing, which can negatively impact economic growth.
• Increased tax avoidance: When tax rates are very high, individuals and corporations are more motivated to find legal and sometimes illegal ways to avoid paying them.
• Capital flight: Wealthy individuals and corporations are mobile and can relocate to jurisdictions with lower tax systems, which shrinks the tax base.

In short, we have borrowed and taxed ourselves into a corner, the only way out is significant reduction in public service expenditure, either voluntarily (unlikely) or by being forced in drastic reform by the IMF when we run out of money, which I think is quite likely before the end of this Parliament.

They already raised taxes and by maintaining the tax threshold we are all paying more. Id just put 2p on VAT ... everybody pays then. Need to drastically cut the benefits bill.

The thing they need to do is scrap this absolutely absurd 'workers' rights bill' that is already lowering employment and harming business (and growth) before its even gone live. I can't remember ever hearing of a more stupid, suicidal, more economically illiterate policy. And yet, that's the one thing they've decided they'll definitely not row back on. So yeah, they'll put up taxes and try and blame the companies and 'rich people' when everything grinds to a halt and there's mass unemployment and those same companies go under. No doubt they'll file for bankruptcy just to annoy Labour.

But telling businesses if they hire someone who turns out to be a complete lunatic on day one (or doesn't even turn up on day one) that they can no longer just get rid and hire their second choice, they now have to struggle through a ridiculous, long-winded bureaucracy to get rid of this person who's never actually done a moment's work. And even after they've somersaulted through all the required hoops, the company can still be sued - and even if they're found completely innocent and the judge agrees the employee is a time-wasting maniac - they still have to pay a small fortune in legal fees. And the time-wasting maniac? They, of course, pay nothing at all and can just skip off to the next company to try again. It's insane, and clearly demonstrates the glaring lack of any kind of commercial experience or understanding in this entire government. You'd have to be at least half-mad to start a business here now.

PS Under the Motability scheme it doesn't cost the taxpayer any more if someone's driving a Mercedes or a Ford. Or if they don't have a Motability car at all and use the money on chauffeurs, limos and champagne. Really don't get why people don't get this; a person on higher level PIP gets £300 and something a week and EITHER they give that to Motability for a car, or they keep it and spend it however they see fit. Either way, the taxpayer still pays £300 and something a week. If you stop Motability they can just use the money to take a loan / lease and get themselves a fancy car that way. The only people disadvantaged will be disabled people who really need a car but can't get one, or really disabled people who really need a car altered to suit their requirements, which isn't something really available outside the scheme. The people who have the thousands needed to upgrade to a Merc will still be getting the same from taxpayers and will still be driving a Merc, they'll just grumble at having to pay their own servicing and insurance. Motability is very much not the cause of Britain's declining living standards 🙄

The greedy corporates can move elsewhere and take jobs with them. Taxing them
less means you get more of them so more tax and more jobs (which also means more tax). It is no coincidence Luxembourg makes a fortune from businesses whilst having low corporation tax.

Hard agree

The people they are rinsing are not high earners in many cases, they are ordinary people. Why aren't they tackling greedy corporates? Waste Iin the system or the balloning welfare bill? Not everyone on benefits should be there.

Big corporations and the 1% can, and will, relocate.

Chat gpt tells me:

In the UK, the latest data (financial year ending 2023) from Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that 52.6 % of all individuals lived in households that received more in benefits (including in-kind benefits) than they paid in taxes (direct + indirect).

The 1% aren’t the issue. The issue is that more than half of all us are not making a net contribution to the tax system. How can this possibly be sustainable?

B. If they'd have been honest they would have said A was necessary to fund their plans before the election. Either lying or terrible planning.

The second highest welfare bill after pensions is in work benefits, Universal Credit for low income workers whose salary isn’t enough to live on. If you want to reduce the welfare bill in this country we need to implement a proper living wage (at least £20 ph). Maybe we should bring in a new level of taxes for companies with highly paid management and poverty wages for the rest?

But the welfare bill is not being spent on lay-about work shy youngsters. Stop believing the bullshit in the daily mail

That being the case, why wasn’t a penny put on income tax last year then?

instead, Labour have worsened the mess with stupid policies (private schools, farmers, NI) and completely stifled any chance of growth - actively driving wealth creators away and scaring investors.

The shit show is now being continued by Labour. I didn’t vote either of them in. I’m surprised many people on this thread don’t hold Labour more accountable for the effects and consequences of their budget last year.