Thursday 10 December 2009

How was the budget for you?

I'll be ever so slightly worse off, but not enough to make any difference.

In a move which will please Adam, bankers' bonuses aren't being taxed. The banks will be taxed 50% on their bonus pot. Hopefully the result will be that bankers are paid a regular salary which will be eligible for tax (bonuses aren't), leading to more responsible behaviour and more income for the government to spend on public services like, er… bailing out banks.

It wasn't much of a budget - the signals were more important than the economics, but there were some interesting bits, like funded internships for graduates without the money to do unpaid internships (which lots of rich kids do). That will certainly benefit some of my students.

6 comments:

Adam said...

Actually, the bonus tax only kicks in on bonuses worth 25K, which is such a soaraway figure it means it won't touch ordinary folks, so I'm not bovvered.

However, as I'm self employed I'm liable for employers' NI, which means I'm going to be paying 2% extra tax, rather than just the 1% everyone else pays. I am not happy that this NI increase affects people on 20K (or is it 14K?).

Vole, I'm not sure you or your students are going to be happy with this latest revelation:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/latest/2009/12/10/think-tank-warning-over-darling-pbr-115875-21887638/

Especially as Higher Ed is one of the areas liable to face cuts.

one thing that appals me is the way Labour have hidden away the real cuts until after the election. We need a proper honest budget (like they had in Ireland), not party politics.

The Plashing Vole said...

Thanks for the link Adam. The higher education cuts are a problem - this place is on its knees already…

They haven't really hidden the cuts until after the election - all the changes announced are for a year's time, so depend on a Labour victory. But yes, worse is clearly still to come.

I'm not quite so bothered about a political budget. Much as I despise the crew we have, they're better than the Tories, so if they fool the electorate, so be it. Cynical, aren't I! I do agree about the Irish budget though. Horrific, but honest. But then, Fianna Fail know that the next election's lost, whereas Labour won't admit it. I'm hoping for a minority Labour government propped up by Lib Dems, Plaid, the SNP and Sinn Fein. Then we'll get some socialism!

As to your NI: sorry, but you chose the life of a contractor! Presumably there are other financial advantages. You'll get it back in your pension and NHS care when they finally drag you off to a state-funded padded cell, free of charge.

Adam said...

true, but not all self-employed people work in IT... builders, sparkies, plumbers, small businesses...

The Plashing Vole said...

That's true of course, but there must be some financial advantage to this status, whatever the actual job. I don't know enough about it.

Adam said...

There may be financial advantages, but it's all relative. Window cleaners aren't highly paid, most builders aren't. The real advantage is, you're not a wage slave - if you're independently minded, have a skill that's in demand, and want to make your own way in the world, then it's perfect. The alternative is you get employed by a company that bills you out at a high rate and only pays you a small fraction of it. That bloke who replaced your smoke alarm battery is probably self-employed.

The Plashing Vole said...

Yes, I can see the advantage to that. I have friends paid a tiny fraction of what their employer charges for their consultancy work.

So basically, in a shortage situation, you're free to charge more, and have the ability to undercut your rivals when there's less work around?