Zopa Mentioned in the Guardian
My Google Alert for Zopa found this report in the Guardian. It’s not particularly relevant to Zopa or peer-to-peer lending as this extract shows.
Not all hairdressers are on one giant VAT dodge, otherwise there would have been some public outcry and we would all, by now, be doing each other’s hair (we would call it peer-to-peer grooming, it would be somewhere between Zopa and a zoo, and it wouldn’t matter what we looked like, because we’d all look the same).
But it does show that you should choose a unique name for your company.
A Good Week for Coeliacs
On Tuesday in the Budget, George Osborne introduced a tax on hot takeaway food. Am I bothered? As a coeliac, who can’t eat any gluten, of course not, as most that will be taxed, would cost me a fortune in toilet paper, if I ate it!
Then today, the Government proposes a minimum price for alcohol. As coeliacs can only drink good quality wine, cider and spirits, I doubt many will be upset!
A Government Income and Expenditure Statement
I proposed one of these years ago. It has been reported that they might bring in an Expenditure statement for taxpayers.
You’d be surprised about how much and how little some taxes raise.
An Expenditure statement is useless without an Income one.
Zopa And A European Transaction Tax
There has been a lot of talk and some would say hot air lately from politicians about a European Financial Transaction Tax. This morning I heard on the radio, that such a tax would reduce the value of pensions dramatically, as every time your pension provider bought or sold a share or bond, you’d pay tax on it. It would probably mean that annuity returns would drop significantly.
On the other hand, if you look at Zopa, which gives me similar returns to what I would expect from my pension or annuity provider, I would hope they are outside of a European Financial Transaction Tax. Unless of course, the tax means that every time we make a transfer from our bank account, 0.01% goes to a central fund in the EU to bail out countries like Greece and Italy.
I would think that if any British Prime Minister allowed that, we would see riots, like we’ve never seen before.
So one of the advantages of an investment like Zopa, is that it should be outside any proposed European Financial Transaction Tax. On the other hand, this just might get the EU to make companies like Zopa illegal or ensure that every lender was registered with some new bureaucracy. Remember that a civil servant’s first duty is to create more jobs for others of his ilk.
So my advice to those who want to have a safe place for their savings, might find Zopa and the other peer-to-peer lenders, a safer place than stocks and shares.
Council Employees Tax Avoidance Schemes
I have been amazed for some years at the enormous salaries trousered by some top council employees. After all, you can’t say that they do a creative job that adds value. Now it appears that many of these employees are paid through companies to avoid tax, according to a report by the Public Accounts Committee. The chair of this committee Margaret Hodge is quoted on the BBC as saying.
This is a tax avoidance scheme which is totally wrong. Where you are a public servant it’s not right you should be paid in a way that avoids tax
I agree! If George Osborne is looking for a place to raise money in the budget, he could declare these contracts illegal and raise perhaps a billion or two.
It would appear that my council, Hackney, is one of the worst offenders, with 39 employees being paid this way.
Rangers in a Pickle
Glasgow Rangers went into administration yesterday and it looks more than your average mess, if you read this article on the BBC.
If you read the comments in the BBC article, they are blaming everybody.
I suppose that as it’s the HMRC that has caused the club to go into aministration, then the UK government will get the blame.
WIll This Greek Package Work?
The Greek government passed a new package of austerity measures last night as this report says. but will the Greek public accept it? As Greeks by repute seem to feel that taxes are optional, I doubt that this deal will stick.
Give Mothers tax break for home help, Cameron told
This was the headline on the front page of The Times today.
Lt is not a new idea, as I heard it from a senior civil servant in about 1980.
He was in the Department of Employment and had proposed that if you employed someone properly out of your salary and paid their taxes accordingly, then you would get tax relief. It wouldn’t be just for cleaners, babysitters and gardeners as in the current plans, but for any legitimate purpose.
Thus, if you were in a high paid job and perhaps felt, you’d like to start a small business, then you could employ someone to investigate if it was feasible.
As it says in today’s front page, it would cut the black economy and raise extra revenue.
It was eventually dropped, as the government’s model of the economy had no knowledge of the black one.
I hope they do now!
Will the French Presidential Election Throw a Big Spanner in the Eurodeal?
The front page article in The Times is all about how Francois Hollande will change the economic direction of France when he becomes President. I said when rather than if, as the polls are strongly in his favour. He also said he would rip-up the EU’s fiscal treaty.
The psaper gives a detsiled analysis of what his policies will mean and I suspect David Cameron, Angela Merkel and anybody in France, who earns more than the average wage won’t like it. A lot of his proposals would also be against the rules of the single market.
Having read what Hollande said, I think it will be good for Britain and especially London and the City, as his proposed rules will drive entrepreneurs from France. Not that they have had many since Mitterand.
One thing I suspect that he won’t like is foreigners, who keep a house in France. I suspect thery’ll be taxed heavily and a pleasure will suddenly have become a nightmare.
Harry ‘Forgot Secret Monaco Account’
This was the headline on the front of last night’s Evening Standard and it refers to a claim by Harry Redknapp at his trial for tax evasion.
I have a simple question. If he couldn’t remember this, what hope has he got of remembering how one of the players he is interested in buying has played?
So why would anybody bother to employ him?
The Anonymous Widower 