If Labour raises taxes what will you think?

[functioningagain]

Typing on my phone so not sure I can do a poll? But, if the government raises income tax or NI at the budget, will you think:

A - let’s get real, they had no other choice
B - those duplicitous / inept bastards

And do you think that's actually happening?

What makes me sad is how much people hate the success of others.

That’s what makes it so bleak in the UK.

You study hard, work hard, get a great job despite all the challenges, pay massive taxes to help others, and yet the majority simply hate you.

Yep, they really do.

And their normalcy bias means that they deliberately try to bring you down, because they can't quite believe that harming you leads to their own loss.

They think the state will always provide...

But you’re RICH

You should be HAPPY to pay for everyone else

All sarcasm aside, I do agree with you. I’m far from rich, earn an above-average income but still have a hefty mortgage to pay off (and not on a mansion, or even a house). Quite rightly I don’t qualify for any income-related benefits but I don’t see why being able to be self-sufficient (making some choices that are detrimental to my health and wellbeing to do so) means that I am now able to pay more.

The Left believes that every single £ you earn belongs to them.

You have no right to any more 'pocket money' out of your earnings than someone who doesn't work.

like the mind of a toddler.

What’s mine is mine.
What’s yours is mine.
What’s broken is yours, until you fix it, then it’s mine.

I love your quote! Let's hope that in 200 years time somebody quotes the wisdom of @strawberrybubblegum!

But building on your comment taxation discourages behaviour (eg smoking or speeding) whilst subsidies encourage behaviour.

Right now we have a taxation policy that actively discourages those seeking to increase their income (either through increased hours or setting up your own business etc) and actively encourages reducing income (working benefits, going part time or early retirement or even for the mega wealthy leaving the country).

So it will be no surprise that as taxation rates increase then tax revenues will decrease. Thereby requiring further taxation.

I had an interesting conversation with a friend who runs a very small business (profit of around £100k pa). Now the hours she works for her own business are insane including weekends, no holidays etc). She also takes the minimum income from the business that she can live on (circa £40k)

Being an ambitious driven lady (from a poorer immigrant background) what she originally planned to do was to build up some capital and then expand her business to a much bigger scale. However because of the taxation on her company profits she is now considering employing someone so she can work less hours and take a bit more of the profits as her income and not grow the business.

In effect the high tax rates have crushed her drive and ambition ("what's the point when the Government just takes it") meaning that a successful business won't ever grow. She is incredibly torn with her heart saying grow the business and her head saying don't bother, chill out and take more income.

Reported in The Times this morning that Labour and Reeves are going to target anyone who earns over £45,000.

Way to dampen aspiration. How do you grow the economy, the only way to reduce debt (and the £105 BILLION interest bill, which exceeds what we spend on most departments except for welfare and health) with this sort of policy? You can't tax your way to growth. It will have the opposite impact. History has shown us that lowering taxes actually increases the tax take

With a third of the population on benefits and 9million people of working age ..... not uh ...... working, this country is screwed. More than half of people take out more than they put it.

And the employment rights bill hasn't kicked in yet which will make it tougher for employers to take a punt on a young person (or disabled or long term unemployed), they are going to do a deal on youth mobility with the EU where youth unemployment is almost double that of the U.K........ I fear for young peoples' prospects in this country

With the aging population demographic things will only get worse. commonslibrary.parliament.uk/the-uks-changing-population/

19% of people in the UK were aged 65 or over in 2022. This this number is projected to increase to 27% by 2072.

It's as if the Labour party don't want people that have worked hard and now earn a decent salary to have a much better lifestyle than those that don't. If it gets worse, there won't be much point in working. Work hard, no spare money. Don't work, no spare money - but without the agro of working.

Yes exactly this

Nail on the head. Some lefties are deluded enough to think that "workers" actually want to work for the good of society, so it doesn't matter whether they're a lot better off or not from working (after taxes, commuting and other costs) a few dozen hours per week.

It is very odd indeed. I mean people will do a few hours a week volunteering, sure. But how can they possibly imagine that a significant number of people would work difficult, full-time jobs for no more money than they would get doing just whatever they fancied?!?

52.6% of people don't care. They are entitled to those benefits. The 47.4 should brace their broad shoulders, it is only fair...

They were always to do this. They lied to get in and they will tax you to death for their ideology. Criminals and hypocrites.

I have a business that I too don’t want to expand,

I won’t be alone in this. Aspiration is pointless. At every turn, the parasites are out to take the money you work for, and it reaches a point where you just lose your motivation to be involved in it all,

Spiteful children are ruling us.

But for the Labour Government and those that voted Labour it doesn't matter that you won't grow your business, it doesn't matter that you won't employ more people and it doesn't matter that it won't help the economy.

What matters to them is that the rich don't get richer even if that means the poor get poorer.

You see aspiration and ambition as a good thing, the left see as greed and exploitation that should be stamped out.

A) and
omg, Truss trashed the economy, the Tories often raised taxes just pretended not to, this myth that Tories are better at managing economy and are low tax party ... is enormous myth. Meanwhile REFORM has all sorts of unfunded spending plans while promising tax cuts... amateurs.

I'll be bracing for how sick of hearing radio4 go on about stirrers making a fuss of the manifesto promise break/tax rise.

It’s not going to help when our dc need jobs.

I agree, it’s awful to watch.

Still batting for Labour, there won’t be many.

Staggering figures from the ONS this morning. Public sector productivity for Q2 down 0.7% and in the health service 1.5%.

And no one has yet mentioned that 25 % of our council tax (which some people will see doubled according to rumours) goes to pay councillor pensions. How long can the country afford to give the ever growing public sector gold plated pensions with 25-30 % of salary contributions ?

Government spending is propping up GDP figures - underlying growth in the private sector is non existent as you can see from the canary in the coal mine the jobs market. Unemployment is forecast to increase to 5%. I fear for young people looking for jobs. In fact several of my DC friends are moving (Dubai and Australia are the popular locations) and one of my DC has expressed an interest in a role in the USA at his work. This is a problem when we need to fund more than 50% of the population who take out more than they contribute and the demographic changes that others have pointed out on this thread.

Oh and she "fixed the foundations" in her last budget with her "fully costed manifesto"

Lies lies lies

Not to mention she made it “perfectly clear” last year she wasn’t coming back for more borrowing or taxes. Not so clear now Rachel are we,

Here's a picture of U.K. inflation vs the euro zone. You can see the impact of Labour's policy decisions on inflation (adding NI and increased minimum wage to businesses) in March and the impact it has had on costs which companies have passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices. Reeves lying in her interview that this is a global problem - no it's a U.K. problem and with inflation sticky at these levels, interest rates won't be cut

I feel quite angry and upset that Labour are breaking their manifesto!

They are blaming Tory spending, but surely they should have known. They need to target people who are not contributing and those avoiding tax, not hard working people and those who already contribute to the tax system. We are getting poorer and working harder - what’s the point?!? My salary at work is not going up in line with everything else, it’s beyond a joke.

There are so so many other ways to raise money, and they need to start looking at cut backs in my opinion e.g. public sector pensions, those who avoid paying child maintenance, those who are out of work but can, those who avoid tax by cash in hand etc etc