Budget 2012 - Wednesday 21st March

[CogitoErgoSometimes]

Wondered if people would find a thread useful to discuss the Budget on Wednesday. More important than ever to watch for announcements that will be affecting things like benefits, tax thresholds and price increases. Some applicable immediately, others not happening for a year or more and which tend to catch people out.

HM Treasury has a Budget Page to follow and places like the BBC and online newspapers usually provide summaries of the key points. Questions, links and observations welcome.

Single mum, teacher & living in the North = not holding my breath lol!!!

Been worse off after every budget since about 1995 so have learned (the hard way) to read the small print rather than just listen to the speeches.

I may be able to chip in a little. For many working parents the key thing to watch out for is child benefit.

The Treasury has still not given any indication how they intend to deal with the ridiculous situation whereby a single parent with three children earning £42,475 a year who gets a £25 a year pay rise would have to give £2,400 of child benefit back. The Chancellor is between a rock and a hard place - if he backs down he will be attacked by the left (including many within the coalition) for giving the 'better off' an easy ride, if he goes ahead he will be attacked by anyone who is intelligent enough to understand the anomolies that would be created (and honest enough to admit them, despite their political leaning), for a cock-up on the scale of the withdrawal of the 10% tax band, only this time with victims slightly further up the income scale.

Many commentators see the 10% tax band crisis as a turning point in the reputation of Gordon Brown and the last Labour government: which is riskier for the Chancellor, and the Government, now - a similar crisis amongst their middle class heartland, or the disapproval of the opposition and a few 'Tory toffs bail out wealthy parents' headlines in the red tops?

@MrAnchovy. Appreciate what you're saying but there will be plenty of threads on other boards that examine the politics. Please could we keep this one purely to look at what any changes announced will mean in practice? I've been struck in recent weeks how many posters managed to miss the fact that the thresholds for tax credits were changing in April, for example. Suspect lengthy political analysis means some can't see the wood for the trees.

CogitoErgoSometimes Sat 17-Mar-12 21:04:41: "Wondered if people would find a thread useful to discuss the Budget on Wednesday ... Questions, links and observations welcome."

I didn't realise you would be moderating this discussion and deciding yourself which observations to welcome.

I am going to be fascinated to see how the mechanics of taking away CB will work for those who have never been means tested, and how they will get around current tax legislation with independent taxation. Cheaper to keep cb than allow transferable tax allowances I would think.

I'm not moderating. Simply politely suggesting that we keep this thread free to help us all understand what the budget means for our families in practice so that we're less likely to get caught out by changes.

I heard him boasting that he would be cracking down hard on rich foreigners who bought an expensive house to live in themselves while avoiding stamp duty.

He seemed to be emphasising the to live in themselves bit

If I were to buy a house for a relation or to let out, or as a holiday home, surely I'd have to pay stamp duty on it

PigletJohn I assume this is a reawakening of this headline-grabber (the first bit about levying 5% Stamp Duty on the transfer of shares in offshore companies which own UK residential property). Since that transaction can be effected entirely outside the UK I am not sure that this is going to be feasible, although in this case the 'victims' are less politically sensitive than single parents earning around £45k a year.

If I were to buy a house for a relation or to let out, or as a holiday home, surely I'd have to pay stamp duty on it.

No, you'd have to pay Stamp Duty Land Tax which for a property costing over £1,000,000 is 5%. But if that property is owned by a company and you buy the company, in most cases you will pay Stamp Duty of only 0.5%. This difference can be used imaginatively for tax avoidance.

maybe he was boasting about it to divert attention from the Mansion Tax idea.

I hadn't seen the advert splash on the Torygraph

BBC's analysis here. R4 Moneybox budget programme 12:30 Thursday should be worth a listen