Well I suppose you have to admire Ming Campbell for telling a City audience he would raid their pensions to the tune of 4 billion pounds. Courageous it may be, but it is also stupid and irresponsible. We used to have the best pensions system in Europe. Thanks to Gordon Brown's 5 billion a year pensions tax we now have one of the worst. I can think of a number of things to critise New Labour for, but this is the most unforgiveable. And now the LibDems want to make things even worse. I don't know why I should be surprised, but I am.
14 comments:
Why don't they raid the MPs pensions plan? It's not as if they have earned it!
More disinformation from Iain, I'm afraid.
Ming Campbell most certainly did not propose a raid on anyone's pension fund. What he said was that in future, why should top rate taxpayers get 40% relief on pension contributions rather than the 22% available to standard rate taxpayers? This is on future contributions - it is in no way retrospective.
If you think that it is generally right that there is a higher rate of income tax for higher earners (not everyone does but all three main parties back the basic idea) then you have to ensure it works, and you have to simplify the system (by having a single rate of relief on pension contributions for example).
I would be genuinely interested to hear Iain's justification for having higher relief for the pension contributions of the rich and lower for the relatively less well off. I suspect he doesn't have one.
anonymous, post under your own name and I might. But rad today's papers if you don't understand the damage this will do.
That’s not a great answer Iain!
That's as may be, but I am busy with something at the moment and am not wasting my time on anonymous LibDem troublemakers!
I read the papers and Waterson clearly doesn't understand the situation....
At heart the Tories will always be about defending the position of the wealthy at the expense of the poor, however much they try to pretend to care about social justice.
"What he said was that in future, why should top rate taxpayers get 40% relief on pension contributions rather than the 22% available to standard rate taxpayers? "
I'll quite happily go on the LibDem troublemakers though Iain.
If you're going to enjoy the current benefit of non-taxed income going into pension contributions then of course higher rate taxpayers should get 40% tax relief, they've paid 40% tax on it before it went into the pension.
Higher rate tax payers get a bigger tax break here because they have paid up front. We're not talking about giving the rich free money here, we're talking about giving people back that which they've paid when the government aren't entitled to it.
Surely as a 40% taxpayer Ming should understand this. But then it's not like his Tresury spokesman can add up can she?
Shame the old fella couldn't have been really radical and suggested 100% tax relief on pensions.
Does anyone honestly believe that the UK Government, of any political colour, really need yet more money from us?
I earn about two and a half times the average nation wage and have being paying into a number of pension plans for over 20 years. When I read reports that for even a modest income @ £25kpa you'll need an investment pot close to £1 Million it terrifies me.
The real crisis in the UK pension system is that none of the people making pension policy will ever have the same sense of trepidation as I and millions of others do.
Mr Anonymous
By the same token should Capital Gains Tax be restricted to 22% for higher rate taxpayers.
Mr Spark
You can't raid MP's pensions. Its our money they have gained from raiding private pensions funds. A reverse Robing Hood if you like.
Carol42 - If you look at basic income statistics, higher rate taxpayers are reasonably rich - well above average. That is not a comment on whether or not the tax rate is too high, just that you are not living in the real world if you think higher rate taxpayers are not well off.
Griswold - "By the same token should Capital Gains Tax be restricted to 22% for higher rate taxpayers." - This remark makes no sense.
Ranting Guttersnipe - This is nonsense. There is no assumption in a tax system that you get out as much as you put in. Those of us on higher incomes put in more than we will get out, and there is nothing wrong with that. Tax relief on pension contributions is designed to encourage provision for yourself. If 22% relief is sufficient to achieve that for standard rate payers, why not for higher rate taxpayers?
Iain - The real reason why you are refusing to answer is that you know Osborne may well do the same.
Anonymous, just to be clear, I don't answer to anyonymous people. And to be even clearer, George Osborne wouldn't be so stupid. And if he was, you'd fins me attacking him.
Carol - Being well off is not the same as being free from any financial concerns. Nobody is ever free from financial concerns because everyone - quite sensibly -lives towards the margins of what they can afford.
Iain - Pathetic. There is no reason why I should post under my own name if I don't want to. That doesn't justify failing to answer the question (which to remind you was justifying why you should have a different level of relief for higher and standard rate taxpayers). I could of course invent a name and post under it but don't wish to insult even your intelligence.
Anonymous, you must be blind. Your question was answered above and in various newspapers. I don't answer questions on demand. If £4 billion is being taken out of the pensions industry, I think it can fairly be described as a raid. Whether it's retrospective or not is a red herring. I never said it would be. As Lincolm once said, you don;t make the poor richer by making the rich poorer. And I dont call someone who earns £36k and pays 40% tax rich.
Iain, Ming isn't proposing burning the money raised! He is proposing cutting the basic rate by 2p, raising the threshold for the higher rate and cutting corporation tax by 1p.
You still, of course, haven't answered the question as to why higher rate taxpayers should get MORE relief than standard rate taxpayers. Ranting Guttersnipe has in fairness at least tried to do so - but his argument only really works if you don't believe in progressive taxation.
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