March Budget

[giesahoose]

What's going to be included?

I reckon pension allowance at higher rates is gone I also have a suspicion BTL is going to get another kicking. Watching property118 disappear in a mushroom cloud of rage will be brilliant.

[sPinwheel]

Salary sacrifice to be curtailed, even banned.

[Inoperational Bumblebee]

What date is it? There does seem to be a lot of pension discussion in the MSM at the moment - I'm going with flat rate tax refund on it.

[TheCountOfNowhere]

What's going to be included?

I reckon pension allowance at higher rates is gone I also have a suspicion BTL is going to get another kicking. Watching property118 disappear in a mushroom cloud of rage will be brilliant.

Give aways to suppor the London mega bubble and convince people to stay in Europe.

Simple

[long time lurking]

What date is it? There does seem to be a lot of pension discussion in the MSM at the moment - I'm going with flat rate tax refund on it.

16 of March

[workingpoor]

Child benefit to be given back to the Middle Classes, another U-turn.

I posted link to the story on the Osborne thread

Edited March 3, 2016 by workingpoor

[billybong]

A big lump sum to vote to stay in the eu.

[long time lurking]

What's going to be included?

I reckon pension allowance at higher rates is gone I also have a suspicion BTL is going to get another kicking. Watching property118 disappear in a mushroom cloud of rage will be brilliant.

Rumour has it they are going to restrict mortgage interest relief for incoperated BTL

[StainlessSteelCat]

Salary sacrifice to be curtailed, even banned.

Yeah, I don't see how you can make some of the pension changes without doing so. It's an obvious loophole.

[streamingfreedom]

Yeah, I don't see how you can make some of the pension changes without doing so. It's an obvious loophole.

But isn't this just going to discourage people to save into a pension? I thought the drive was to increase saving for retirement

[pmf170170]

But isn't this just going to discourage people to save into a pension? I thought the drive was to increase saving for retirement

It's George Osbourne's idea of joined up thinking.

[spacedin]

Couple of months down the line, can just picture it now.

Edited March 3, 2016 by spacedin

[jiltedjen]

more BTL kicks, more pension raids, more raids on pee-taking contractors.

temporary increase on fuel duty? - with prices relatively low it could be a chance to grab some more tax until prices rise again

more help for first time buyers

some subtle hidden changes, which cut some benefits in phased way

[Clarky Cat]

Well it'd be nice if they totally got rid of the mortgage interest tax relief and signalled once and for all that buying a new house and keeping the old one "to rent out" is socially undesirable.

Reality - probably some more restrictions on BTL - interesting that quite a major change in stamp duty was announced in something that's supposed to be less important than the Budget. There's probably something more to come.

[dgul]

There is lots of talk about some sort of saving fund for covering life events, like illness or redundancy - for the low paid, self-employed, etc. Some are talking of it taking a form like insurance, but others interpret it as being more like the help-to-save isa - you pay in, then if you get made redundant or become ill they'll top it up.

The obvious read-across is that this is being set in place to replace aspects of the welfare state.

[Neverwhere]

Firm details on the introduction of powers of direction for the FPC over the BTL market?

Changing the tax treatment of corporate landlords' finance costs so that they are no longer treated as a deductible expense but instead afford a 20% tax relief - leaving the BTLers judicial review argument dead in the water withough actually increasing taxes for corporate landlords - would also be a killer move.

(Of course removal of all tax breaks for loans held against residential property would be preferable, but unlikely).

[zugzwang]

Deficit elimination postponed again.

UK econmy still 'outperforming' G7 rivals.

Spend spend spend.

[latterdaysinner]

@Neverwhere "Changing the tax treatment of corporate landlords' finance costs so that they are no longer treated as a deductible expense but instead afford a 20% tax relief - leaving the BTLers judicial review argument dead in the water withough actually increasing taxes for corporate landlords - would also be a killer move."

The corporation tax rate is 20%, which gives the extent of tax deductability of mortgage interest for corporate landlords. Changes for private landlords actually put them on a level playing field with corporate ones, so the judicial review arguments were dead on arrival.

[durhamborn]

Tax credits to count savings for the first time.Part time hours rule increased to 30 once youngest child is 12.Housing benefit changed in some way so the means test kicks in quicker and takes away more.SMI loan instead of benefit brought forward.

Pension tax relief to 30% for everybody sold as "helping the low paid save".Lifetime allowance cut again and maximum in one year cut to £25k.People are starting to pile into pensions once their houses are paid off to retire early and he needs to stop that happening.

Some more changes around social housing to cut housing benefit.

[Neverwhere]

@Neverwhere "Changing the tax treatment of corporate landlords' finance costs so that they are no longer treated as a deductible expense but instead afford a 20% tax relief - leaving the BTLers judicial review argument dead in the water withough actually increasing taxes for corporate landlords - would also be a killer move."

The corporation tax rate is 20%, which gives the extent of tax deductability of mortgage interest for corporate landlords. Changes for private landlords actually put them on a level playing field with corporate ones, so the judicial review arguments were dead on arrival.

Absolutely. In fact AIUI corporate landlords will still pay more relative to rental income because any funds taken as personal income or dividends are then taxed for a second time on the way out of the company.

I was just thinking that moving from deductibility to tax relief for corporates would cause the tax treatment of finance costs to be so identical that there would be no possibility of even arguing otherwise, and yet it would effectively only be a change in terminology, hence why I think it would be a killer move.

[R K]

taxy taxy slashy slashy

"paying down the debt" "live within our means" "budget surplus" "global slowdown"

[Pop321]

The pensions one is an interesting one. It costs the government £7bn a year and mainly higher rate tax payers. But the restriction of £40K a year nicely sorts out the directors etc on £1m salaries.

So if you can pay 40% when NOT paying into a pension then why would you pay into one if the tax is 20% in, and 20% out. ie like basic rate tax payers tend not to pay into added pensions then effectively contributions would stop for higher rate tax payers too. Better to just take the cash and the 40% hit.

Whether that is a good or bad thing is debatable....i.e. why should higher rate tax payers get this advantage? Maybe stopping them paying into pensions is the desired effect because at the end of the day it is likely they already have sufficient to get by in retirement....but it requires in depth analysis.

My prediction:

Restriction on tax relief on interest payments for companies

Fags and beer

Tax on wheelchairs, crutches, medicines, health care...to pay for an MPs expense allowance increase.

[BLOW FLY]

Total U turn on BTL tax regime

[StainlessSteelCat]

But isn't this just going to discourage people to save into a pension? I thought the drive was to increase saving for retirement

Normal Govt. double speak. I suspect they want to poorly paid to contribute NI, saving for their pensions and working til they drop. For the better off, contributing NI/tax and working til they drop will do. Both groups will, of course, somehow be good little spenders while servicing a hefty mortgage/credit card debt.

Personally, it's annoying as my company has only just discovered the wonders of salary sacrifice into your pension in the last year (even if they snaffle the NI savings themselves).

See also removing the so-called green taxes on energy bills which may now actually lead to increases in said bills:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35706645

Edited March 4, 2016 by StainlessSteelCat

[jiltedjen]

12 days to go,

I want to see the BTL's squeal