Death, Taxes and Spam
Benjamin Franklin said that there are only two certainties in life; death and taxes.
Today he would have added spam.
If I look at my unwanted e-mails and remove everything that is obviously crooked, comes from a foreign source or is related to companies I once signed up to, I end up with a surprisingly short list; Rodial and Heaton Wealth Investments. As I said before, Rodial is a company I have no need for and I find it mildly amusing that they are targetting me. The other company is trying to sell me useless property investments and my financial advisor has told me to steer well clear of them. As most of the properties they seem to be promoting are from places, I wouldn’t visit, if you paid me, I doubt I’d be pulled in by their charms.
What worries me, is that these companies wouldn’t do it, if it wasn’t profitable for them. So perhaps there really is one born every minute.
Small Brain Says VAT Rise is Wrong
He might make statements like this, but wasn’t Small Brain part of the government that got us into this mess in the first place. Let’s face it, there are only so many things a Chancellor can do and raising VAT is one of them.
What would Small Brain do?
He would certainly not apply the old adage, that if you’re in a hole, you stop digging.
His friends in the unions would probably have walked him to the IMF by now!
If others use their car less, then the VAT rise would be a pain worth enduring!
But he’s ignoring Newton’s Law here. People will take actions to avoid the VAT. They’ve either bought early or will be delaying purchases until things get better.
I think we’ll all wonder what the VAT fuss was about in a couple of months. Except of course for the truckers, who will protest! But it could be argued that they’re losing more business because a lot more goods are being moved by rail.
Fall out from the VAT Rise from 17.5% to 20%
One of the things about the current VAT rate of 17.5% is that there is a rule that an elephant would never forget to find out the VAT part of a bill. You take the total amount, multiply it by 7 and they divide it by 47.
You could argue that the 20% rate is just a divide by 6, but it’s not very memorable is it.
On the other hand, VAT rates of say 18, 19 or 21 percent would be beyond many people’s capabilities.
Expensive Council Number Plates
The BBC is running an item this morning about how councils have very expensive number plates on official cars.
Apparently, Essex has already sold F1 for £375,000, but it may now be worth up to £5,000,000, so it would appear they may have been short changed.
Northampton would appear to have the most valuable one and that is NH1, which could be worth £400,000. But as they say, once sold you can’t cash in next year.
On the other hand, one person’s asset could satisfy another’s ego. So would it not be possible to lease the number plate for an appropriate amount of money?
Now, whilst we’re talking about number plates, could the lease apply to other council assets?
- How many expensive works of art are languishing in public hands, that people would pay to hire for a year, months or even a day?
- Councils have some desirable houses in valuable positions, that might be better rented than sold.
- Councils have some of the best car parking in the centre of towns. It should all be rented to those who can afford to pay!
- The list probably goes on!
Returning to number plates, I always remember that when I lived in the Barbican BP had the plate BPO 1L on a corporate limousine. Later I saw it on a transit mini-bus in the company’s colours. Do they still own it? It probably wouldn’t be a good idea after the Gulf Oil Spill.
Should We Have A Graduate Tax?
There have been various discussions about bringing in a Graduate Tax, but it would appear according to this report, that Vince Cable would not be in favour of such a tax.
It is a difficult problem, as if you make taxes on high-flying graduates or their loan interest onerous, then they will leave the country and not pay. As we live in an increasingly mobile society, I suspect that thirty years on we’ll start to have problems collecting the smaller student loans that have already been taken out. Remember that a lot of middle-class parents have funded their kids through University in the last few years, so the pressure on the system is not as great as it might be!
Revolt of the Mothers
George Osbourne’s proposals for cutting child benefit to high earners does not appear to have gone down well with those who will be affected. But his other proposal to limit the amount of benefit to a particular family to £500 a week seems to have been well received by the same high earners.
They can’t have it both ways!
But you have to look at the statistics here! Women are now having their children later, often after or midway through a good career. So perhaps, Osbourne’s apparent child benefit robbery will have a classic Newtonian reaction and mothers will wait until they get the finances right before having their children. I know we didn’t do that in the 1970s, but then, child benefit in those days was very insignificant compared to what it is now!
As to the benefit limit of £500 per family, this will have some beneficial effects. Most of these high benefits are paid in the form of housing benefit in areas, where rental property is expensive. Landlords will not let their properties stand empty, so we might see rents fall in another classic Newtonian reaction.
George Osbourne Abolishes Child Benefits for High Earners
We had three chidren and when we were hard up, the small amount of child benefit we got helped C make ends meet. But as we could afford to send all of our children to private schools, I don’t think we’d have missed the child benefit, when I became a high earner.
So I think George Osbourne has got it absolutely right. If you have three children, the benefit works out at about £180 per month. In the grand scheme of things if you are earning over £44,000 and living well, it’s just a case of good wine a month or a meal down the pub for two, once a week!
What really gets me is the sight of young and sometimes not-so-young mothers, wheezing as they push the baby around, whilst smoking their ciggies. After all 20 a day is about £180 a month! So if you have three children, you can use your child benefit for the fags!
A Very Misguided Cardinal
It is a bit rich for Cardinal Kasper to call the UK a Third World country, because of our attitude to homosexuality, contraception, aggressive atheism, abortion and our multi-cultural society.
Especially, as the Catholic church does not allow the use of condoms to prevent disease and has done little to punish the known child abusers in the ranks of their priests. Every accusation of child abuse, no matter, who is thought to have performed it, should be fully investigated by the proper authorities. Internal investigations are not good enough!
By any stretch of the mind, our crimes are all very small compared to systematic child abuse. C would be ranting today, as she had dealt many times with the worst excesses of child abusers. None as I am aware, were priests of any denomination.
But then Cardinal Kasper is seventy-seven, so he should have advantage of wisdom! Where is it? Nowhere in my mind! We all decry elderly dictators like Robert Mugabe and Kim Il Yong, for holding on to power, but isn’t the Catholic church under the control of a self-serving group of elderly men, albeit with perhaps a better sense of morals. Where are the women at the highest level for a start?
I also have a personal beef against the Catholic Church. They discriminate against coeliacs and don’t allow them to be priests.
I shall not be watching anything to do with the Pope’s visit. I mean him no harm, but the sooner this circus and its associated cult of personality is over the better. I don’t pay my taxes for visits like this!
The Scandal of Gift Aid
The thinktank, ResPublica estimates that charities are losing £750million in donations because of the antiquated Gift Aid system, run by HMRC. Read about it in The Guardian.
Surely, it is better for charities to spend the money on what they do, rather than spend it on back-office administration.
Homeopathy on the NHS
The most sensitive thing that you mustn’t criticise in this country is homeopathy.
But this government is actually allowing the use of this witchcraft (the BMA’s word not mine!) to increase in times of budget cuts according to the Daily Mail.
If fools want to be parted from their money, then it should be up to them to find their own quack, at their expense and not mine as a taxpaper.
The Anonymous Widower 