To think the Tories are clever?

[ClassicLib]

They are introducing a massive pension tax cuts for their rich mates in the city, and selling it by claiming that it might also persuade a few rich NHS consultants to delay their retirement to their second homes in France for a couple of years.
And who is paying for this? Why you & me, of course, because our basic rate & higher rate tax allowances are being frozen until 2028. This is actually a massive income tax increase for ordinary working people, of course. And the media have fallen for their spin.
That’s smart politics…

The change to pensions is hardly a tax break

Er...that's exactly what it is.

Is that really all you care about?? You don't seem to have a clue.

Florissant
I have no idea whether or not they're clever but they know what a woman is, which is more than can be said for Labour, the Lib Dems or the Greens. And that's a pretty low bar

I'm seeing this 'yeah but' trotted out often lately and it's not the 'gotcha' some seem to think it is.

The Tories are in power now and have been for years. What exactly is their 'knowing what a woman is' doing for women, in a climate where Self-ID is heavily impacting womens' rights, often dangerously?

It's a lazy excuse isn't it, that it's cool for swathes of working class people to be thrown under the bus in favour of the rich, because a right wing greedy favours for mates government purportedly 'know what a woman is'

Not necessarily - it's complex.

Pension contributions are free of income tax, which means you are refunded the income tax that you initially paid on this money.
In that sense, yes, it is a "tax break".
Making pension contributions may not reduce your taxable income for the purposes of income tax bands. If you are making pension contributions out of your earnings it's not a "tax break".
If you earn over £50,000 a year you will be considered a higher rate income tax payer, though you can claim back higher-rate tax relief on pension contributions above that threshold.
However, there is a way to actually reduce your taxable income with pension contributions. You can do this using a "salary sacrifice scheme". In this kind of scheme, your employer agrees to make additional pension contributions on your behalf in exchange for reducing your salary by a certain amount.
This saves on National Insurance contributions, so you can potentially get a higher pension contribution than you could have afforded yourself from your salary.
But it can also have the effect of reducing your salary to a lower tax band.

Like I said, it's complex and there's no such thing as a "free lunch"

Absolutely.

Consultants train by ;
4-6 years at Medical School
1 optional year to get an extra research degree.
2 foundation years in hospital
2 years 'core' training in what ever speciality they want to follow.
5-7 years mentoring by another consultant.

So the minimum amount of study is 13 years.

They deserve every penny they get IMO

Quite!!!!!

It's such an empty argument.

Forget rising numbers of those in poverty. Forget the country heading towards recession. Forget the lies, incompetence and dwindling public services.

Because apparently they know what a woman is.

I'm GC. I don't believe gender can be changed because it's a social construct.

But I care more about being to live and eat and heat my house!

This does not give you a pass go to vote for them and let in all their abhorrent other politics. So fucking short sighted.

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Fucking hell. Change the record. You are obsessed. I agree with you but you but to be so single tracked is not healthy and leaves no room for other equally important matters. It also turns people off the issue as makes you sound as if nothing is as important. Which to the majority of people it is. Unless of course you are one of the Tory Bots so well trained on this site.

The Tory bots/shills, like the whole party, need to Do Better. ‘At least they know what a woman is’ isn’t cutting it any more.

Nothing wrong with the Tories, they just haven't got the best leader.

Any more.

Don't cry Liz. I hear you are setting about a "think tank" so I'm sure you'll be back on Question Time before you know it.

Wow. Even on MN 'they know what a women is' isn't a vote winner.

The things you listed don't affect me so I don't care as much about it as them knowing what a woman is.

I really miss Boris.

It wouldn’t give them the opportunity to con the gullible though.

Yes they're "clever" but I don't think anyone with a brain is falling for it.

If they actually want to encourage people to not retire in their 50s the most effective way would be to raise the age where you can start using your private pension to be closer to or in line with the state pension age. A lot of people would not start taking a pension at 55 if it meant losing a load in tax, they'd just ride out their job.

Yes, they are quite clever. The pension cap is terrible policy, and affects far more people than you think (and not the mega wealthy). If Labour sticks to its promise to bring it back, I think it will harm their election prospects.

I have no love for the Conservative Party, but I do agree with their focus on growth and increasing workforce participation. Labour policies just seem reactively punitive towards anyone who has achieved the slightest bit of economic success .

The Tories have really done a number on anyone who thinks like this.

As Paul Johnson of the IFS said yesterday, it’s using a hammer to crack a nut.

They could have done a pension deal for Doctors only but have instead made it for high earners like us who don’t need the money.

He went on to say that’s it reversing 13 years of policy and won’t have much effect on employment.

This

so rich bankers will NOT be able to chuck in huge contributions
Aye the poor lambs are restricted to 60K in any year - that 60K in pension contributions alone - way more than the majority of us earn or will ever earn iin a year - but according to you that's not "huge contributions"? OK then.

Not sure clever is the word I'd used to describe tories tbh, another word beginning with c springs to mind but that only has 5 letters and ends in 's'.

We all know that a tory only cares about two things. Themselves and money, but worse than that they're also spiteful, manipulative, horrible people by nature.

They know the next election is a lost cause so they'll spend their remaining time in power doing everything they can to line their own pockets now and fuck the general public / the country itself over.

Help for working families = oh that's complicated, put that on the "to do" list for next year(ish).

Help for rich old people (aka tories) = quick! push that through immediately before anyone can question it!

But hey, tories "know what a woman is". Tell me, if you know what a woman is and fuck them over anyway does that make it better or worse?

Mmm but they are also a massive bunch of arsehats who don't give a shit about the working class and are now ripping off the middle classes too. I agree with you on the troonacy issue, however the worker's party led by George Galloway also knows what a woman is and actually gives a shit about addressing poverty and homelessness in this country, a country with the 5th wealthiest economy globally.

@Neededanewuserhandle incorrect. If you are on a banker salary you can probably only contribute £10k (up from £4k now). I know ‘benefit to bankers’ it is a catchy slogan, but it really isn’t an accurate reflection of the reality.

the real beneficiaries are likely to be higher but not highest earning professionals in the latter half / last quarter of their careers who can afford the drop in income, still get some tax advantage, and have realised the importance of self funding retirement