What financial steps are you taking to hedge the risk of a Burham Budget?

[Toohotforwork]

With all the financial uncertainty at the moment what are you doing to prepare/de risk Burham's actions?

We were in a chain to move house but have pulled since we don't really need to move. If the wealth tax came in the new house would be a silly choice and if stamp duty changes we might be better going somewhere else.

I think CGT will increase so we have trimmed our share portfolio a bit. We crystalized some gains and rebased them to current valuations.

We have taken cash that was sitting in the business out to protect from dividend increases. We'll decide where to invest it once we have a bit more clarity on what is going to happen. If interest rates increase will pay down the debt on our rental for example.

What have you been doing to hedge your finances?

Actually checked my biggest DC pension the other day. Worrying in general about among other things a stock market crash if the AI bubble bursts. Obviously not related to AB particularly but I don't think the UK is well placed to handle any more economic shocks. Thankfully pension co seems to have derisked me already based on my age and so whilst it only made 8-9% increase last year I can live with that for the certainty of knowing it's safe (ish).

In terms of UK I'm doing what I've been doing for the last year or so. Living frugually. With food prices starting to look like made up numbers sticking to my food budget is getting tricker. Council tax pisses me off (single person living alone) and I hope whatever he does makes it cheaper for me.

I am planning on moving in the foreseeable future. Currently waiting for a joiner to come do some work in my house (hate having to wait so long for tradesman). Hoping they don't do anything mental that will make moving more difficult. Houses here still selling pretty well to be honest, only a few hanging around. Still plenty of closing dates. I recall the 2008 property bubble and wonder if we are heading for a repeat.

Think AB is in for a tough time. Worrying noise about them being fine with welfare spending and not planning on reducing it. More taxes are going to mean more unemployment and more companies going out of business unless he does them very carefully and well thought out. I see less companies investing here, more wealthy people leaving and the bond market running the country more and more as we are at their mercy to keep borrowing.

We need a tough PM who can make hard choices for the good of the country and to return us to financial viability. Is AB that man. I don't think he is based on what I have seen so far. He seems to like being popular and liked (who dosen't). I don't envy him trying to run the country. Unfortunately the only candidate who I think might be able to stand up and upset everyone to make tough decisions is someone like the restore party. NF has proven himself to lack credability now, KB I don' think would have the balls to run the country, labour are a mess so who are we left with. I'm a bit interested to see if RL apologies for his Dunblane comment. I know what he meant and pretty sure everyone is just pretending not to understand his comment (one murder, he meant one awful event). Sort of hoping he dosen't apologise. The Dunblane thing was obviously terrible but just wondering how he will react to public pressure. I guess I want to see what he is made off.

I really hope he gets more young people working in trades. Job for them obviously but it would help lots of us who hate dealing with trades and the shortages of them.

I expect lots of mumsnet threads slagging him off in the foreseeable future.

I mainly want stability to be able to grow our businesses. We locked down over the past few years but Burnham may be more business friendly. In many ways it doesn't matter what the framework is as long as we are told, can plan, and the government sticks to it for more than 10 minutes.

All this chat about canning stamp duty and bringing in a property tax notwithstanding, I'm not convinced that taxes based on a property's worth is still the right way to go, I'd prefer to see a tax based on size, so a flat rate per sq ft. That would be far fairer, and I say that as someone who lives in a house that is almost 4000 sq ft. It would level the country. If you're in a 4000 sq ft house up North, you've got more cash than most. Obviously the same applies down South.

If you charged £1.25 on each sq ft, it would be a similar cost to council tax but it would clobber the very largest houses in London, and rightly so. If you've made improvements, your house is bigger (so worth more) and it would take this in account as well.

Examples @ £1.25 per sq ft.

1500 sqft = £1,875
2400 sqft = £3,000
4000 sq ft = £5,000
10000sq ft = £12,500

How much a property is worth is a moot point. what if there is a massive crash and prices halve,what then? Square footage is fairly constant give or take loft conversions and extensions etc.

Just goes to show how uneven the council tax is. My house is worth around 260K. I pay £180 per month with the single person discount. It outrages me each month.

I've no idea if I will be better off or not. Still £180 per month on my own for a very average house is a huge expense. I really hope it's not going to cost me more.

A bit like the windows tax of old!

Nothing. It’s all bullshit bait. If this is what it takes to make you plan ahead then your financial downfall is nobody’s fault but your own.

@Toohotforwork Not really. You can't start knocking down corners of your house to make it cheaper. If rich dicks want to remove a floor, they're welcome to their greed!

If you bring in a tax that penalising square footage you’re going to stop lots of building projects stone dead. I’m not sure that’s good for the economy. Stamp duty is also knackering the housing market so it needs to be something that doesn’t decimate the economy in another way as a knock on effect.

@Toohotforwork as you are excluding yourself (and your disposable income) from fair taxation what will you do instead to be patriotic and stand up for this country? Maybe exclude yourself from using infrastructure, or better still become an immigrant in another country with less taxation and no universal healthcare?

I’m still looking forward to the promise that all non-community minded millionaires will leave the country if taxes on their disposable income increases. Please let us know when to expect it.

Nothing, because he got in on the sly- if he crashes the markets he will be out like Liz Truss. So he is not going to be doing that.

But just generally overleveraging your wealth into one house has always been a bad idea anyway. It is not productive for anyone.

How will it stop building projects stone dead? It will force housebuilders to stop 5 bed executive homes and make them build more accessible homes. Besides, most of these 5 bed homes are not really anything like the 5 bed homes of old. The ones I've researched are no bigger than 2500 sq ft, so what's the problem?

Good old positive attitude. Who would you like to see in power now then?

Why am I excluding myself from fair taxation? I pay all the tax I'm due to pay. Hardly anyone structures their life to pay more than than they are required to. But if you want to - go for it!

Not much you can do until he actually says what he intends to do, at the minute it's all guesswork. He may increase taxes but which way he jumps we don't know, presumably it will have to go through the treasury. I think he's trying to make people think it will be bad so we will be relieved if it's not quite so bad. Presumably it will all happen at the next budget? Some of the big changes being suggested would take a bit of time to implement.

If that was the op's reaction it seems like it is causing all the wrong reactions already in terms of housing market and investments.

Tax avoidance is like not moving away to do a noxious fart - it’s not illegal but it’s saying I don’t give a s**t about anyone else.

I’m looking at options to leave the country conpletely

Anyone who whose their ISA allowance is avoiding tax.

lots of people extend their homes or move to increase square footage. Once you start taxing the square footage people will cease to move (just like the OP) AND cease to employ builders and contractors to extend their houses. Thats why the footprint of the land makes more sense as the only thing you can do to decrease that is either move or sell off some garden.

But it is not an off chance is it? All Labour ever does is tax tax and tax and expensive houses is top of their list.

I'm not even avoiding tax! I'm actually paying tax on the investment gains by selling today just at today rate. I'm making a decision based on an expectation the tax rate will go up, if Burnham actually lowers CGT (which would be a great move for getting growth) I loss out.

Everyone has to pay the tax they are due to pay, you can't exclude yourself. You can do prudent things like put your savings in ISAs or save into pensions for your future, as much as is allowed in the rules. CGT may well be brought into line with income tax, but then reducing your CGT liability probably means you increase your income tax on savings, all you are doing is moving the deckchairs around. Deciding it's no longer economic to buy a new house is just a personal decision, but pretty irritating to the rest of the chain.

Of course he may do the simple thing that screws everyone and put up the rates of income tax that is the surest way to increase revenue.

This thread is blatant political rage bait. Glad PP have also noticed….

And of course from now you will be paying income tax on gains on those funds assuming you put them into other savings products.

TBH I think there is a lot of unnecessary panic about this- extra taxes should be on multi millionaires/billionaires, and changes with property are likely to target second homes.

Your posts are nonsensical. How is taxing square footage a less good option than taxing what a property is notionally worth? A property is only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it. If you've been taxed for a decade on a notional value and then you come to sell and get £££ less, what then? Square footage is definitive, there's no getting around it. If you extend, or move somewhere bigger, you pay the extra. Why shouldn't you?