Fight The 'Granny Tax'

[VicW]

I don't know how many of Shootclay members are state pensioners but those of you who are may care to read and sign this petition.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/tax/9857372/Get-ready-to-fight-the-granny-tax.html

https://submissions.epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/31778
 
Vic.

 

[RobertBeard]

Done the petition Vic

 

[Westward]

Sorry Vic but I'm with the government on this. I can see no logical reason why over 65s shouldn't be taxed at the same rate as everyone else.

 

[Darkside]

I'm with the goverment too, as a working parent I'm being squeezed like never before, why should better off pensioners who earn enough to pay tax not share the pain!?!?

 

[VicW]

Who says I'm better off,my sole income is from state pensions.

Pensioners are subject to the same tax rules as anybody else.We get the same tax free allowances as anyone else,not more.

Vic.

 

[Westward]

At some earlier point the tax threshold for over 65s was set at about £4K more than that for under 65s. I presume this was another of Golden Brown's socialist stunts to win votes, but the only change since then that I know of, is that everyone else's tax threshold is now at the same level and Osborne  isn't going to restore the differential for over 65s. You could produce an argument that this places pensioners at a theoretical disadvantage by adversely changing their tax position relative to everyone else's, but in practice it isn't going to cost a single extra penny in tax to any pensioner. And in my opinion it's only removing an advantage that shouldn't have been there in first place.

How is that a granny tax? Which pensioners are worse off as a result?

 

[VicW]

No pensioners will be worse off as a result of the change to tax thresholds,it is a natural reaction to having something taken away that you had been looking forward to.

When you are a pensioner you too may be looking forward to an improvement in your finances only to have it taken away.

Pensioners have already 'shared the pain' throughout their earlier lives.

They have worked for 50 years of their lives,paid their tax and insurance,scratched together enough to buy a house and a car and educate their children and help bring up their grandchildren and in some cases are now doing the same for their great grandchildren.

So these 'rich' pensioners,through their own diligence,have no mortgage,no finance on their car,no children to educate and fewer overheads.

No wonder they are 'rich'. You'll be 'rich' one day.

Vic.

 

[RobertBeard]

Now they've found another excuse not to raise the IHT threshold again so that the rest of us can pay for those that never bought a house or otherwise need to have free nursing or retirement home care.  No wonder people emigrate! 

As Vic says above we have already shared the pain and just when you think you've made it they start taking more away from you.  It was always going to be jam tomorrow but only a very select few ever got to get any of that!

And once they have taken it off you they waste it!

 

[Westward]

No pensioners will be worse off as a result of the change to tax thresholds,it is a natural reaction to having something taken away that you had been looking forward to.

When you are a pensioner you too may be looking forward to an improvement in your finances only to have it taken away.

Vic, I am in fact over 65 but I've still got no idea what you mean. What were you looking forward to that's been taken away? What sort of improvement in your finances were you expecting? Pensions have increased by more than (official) inflation but your tax rate hasn't increased. Doesn't sound too bad to me.

Okay pensioners have 'shared the pain'. None of us got oodles of tax payers cash thrown at us just for having children. There were no tax payer bribes for our wives (sorry partners) to go out to work and shove the kids in tax payer funded nurseries. Sooner or later though, someone will have to pay for all the 50 odd new forms of welfare benefit that Golden Brown invented to try and get people to like him. I saw a stat last week that said 90% of couples with children receive some form of state handouts in addition to child benefit. Nevertheless, those of our generation who bought houses did get 'rich'; it just happened by accident through the stupidity of successive governments allowing a free for all in the financial sector which drove up property values to the point where even 1st time buyers on good salaries can only afford a crappy house.

So now we pensioners own houses that are ridiculuosly overvalued, relative to the median living standard, and the country is burdened with a raft of hideously expensive socialist sacred cows that many of our generation voted for, which can't be reversed, and for which our children and grandchildren will have to pay heavily. Our generation produced a society that can't pay its bills, but we did win the housing lottery, so I'm prepared to accept a certain amount of austerity in terms of income and not continually expect the state to keep me in comfort.