Gordon Brown To Grab 1 Billion In Taxes From Fuel Cost Surge

[Realistbear]

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article....mp;in_page_id=2

Brown's £1bn fuel bills tax grab

Andrew Leach and Dan Atkinson, Mail on Sunday

27 August 2006

GORDON Brown is in line for a record £1bn-plus tax payout from domestic energy bills this year, as millions of households struggle in fuel poverty.

The cash comes from the five% VAT levied on domestic energy bills, which have soared in the past two years because of rising wholesale gas prices.

Gas bills have risen by about 70% since 2003. Electricity charges are up 50%, leaving an average household paying more than £1,000 a year for its energy.

The Chancellor's share of these higher bills has swollen his coffers, with about £770m raised last year and more than £1bn expected this year. As well as higher VAT receipts, rocketing oil and gas prices mean a taxation bonanza for the Treasury, with bumper North Sea revenues...../

The term is applied to homes where more than ten% of disposable income is spent on fuel to keep the inhabitants warm. More than 2m households are believed to be in fuel poverty, a figure that rises by 40,000 people with every one% increase in energy costs.

Gordon is a canny Scot--hang onto your wallets!

Edited August 27, 2006 by Realistbear

[Xurbia]

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article....mp;in_page_id=2

Brown's £1bn fuel bills tax grab

Andrew Leach and Dan Atkinson, Mail on Sunday

27 August 2006

GORDON Brown is in line for a record £1bn-plus tax payout from domestic energy bills this year, as millions of households struggle in fuel poverty.

The cash comes from the five% VAT levied on domestic energy bills, which have soared in the past two years because of rising wholesale gas prices.

Gas bills have risen by about 70% since 2003. Electricity charges are up 50%, leaving an average household paying more than £1,000 a year for its energy.

The Chancellor's share of these higher bills has swollen his coffers, with about £770m raised last year and more than £1bn expected this year. As well as higher VAT receipts, rocketing oil and gas prices mean a taxation bonanza for the Treasury, with bumper North Sea revenues.

Gordon is a canny Scot--hang onto your wallets!

I take it the 1bn doesn't include the other stealth-one-off-tax he was proposing to sting the oil companies with?

As I've said before he hasn't even screwed the big banks yet.

The consumer gets hit.

[clv101]

This story is very short term thinking, Brown's North Sea tax take will fall away to almost nothing over the next 15 years to be replaced with a ~doubling of the trade deficit as we try and import oil and gas to compensate. Of course there's no guarantee we'll be able to import enough so we'll probably just end up going without.

[Dylan]

This story is very short term thinking, Brown's North Sea tax take will fall away to almost nothing over the next 15 years

Christ, I hope it's not still his in 15 years time...

[Dames]

take it the 1bn doesn't include the other stealth-one-off-tax he was proposing to sting the oil companies with?

Think he got that last month?

Dames :angry:

[Xurbia]

Think he got that last month?

Dames :angry:

The oil companies will just take it on the chin I reckon! They won't try to find a way of clawing it back will they?

So it must be the turn of the banks next then. Watch Brown collect all the overdraft charges up in his hoover.

[crash2006]

The oil companies will just take it on the chin I reckon! They won't try to find a way of clawing it back will they?

So it must be the turn of the banks next then. Watch Brown collect all the overdraft charges up in his hoover.

i found a way to reduce it, my gas bill less than £130 pounds.

[dnd]

Gordon is a canny Scot--hang onto your wallets!

He's been screwing the public for years by letting them borrow against rising inflation - I'm sure they'll take this one up the rikker without complaint as well

Labour PR 'smoke and mirrors' machine is unstoppable....

[Xurbia]

i found a way to reduce it, my gas bill less than £130 pounds.

I think a lot of people are thinking of ways of saving a hell of a lot more than that.

If if is right for Gordon Brown to steal from pension funds and not be held accountable is it right for a legitimate business, on the edge of bankruptcy, to not pay its tax? Perhaps it is more right for the legitimate business because at least they are creating wealth and not destroying it. I think we are a stage now in society where anything goes. The advantages of working hard compared to claiming family benefits seems very thin.