What do you want to see mentioned in this year's Budget?

A question about : What do you want to see mentioned in this year's Budget?

It's that time of year again. We're weeks away from the next Budget.

If you were in charge of the country's purse strings what would you spend the money on?

All original and innovative ideas are welcome - but please keep them practical and polite!

Discuss below or email your ideas to budget.representations@hmtreasury.gsi.gov.uk before Fri 14 Feb.

The interactive site from https://wheredoesmymoneygo.org/ covers all of the areas that our taxes currently get spent, from Pensions (Ј85billion) to Pollution (500million) and everything in between.

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Best answers:

• My two suggestions were:-
  a reduction in VAT on repairs and maintenance on property to 5% as already allowed by EU,
  changing Stamp Duty to mirror all other taxes so, for example, stamp duty on Ј300K property would be Ј2,800 instead of Ј9K.
• I like the idea of using Funding Circle to invest in businesses (where they might not get a sensible loan from their bank) as well as the bonus of a better return on my money HOWEVER it annoys me that any losses I suffer are not 'tax deductable'; another example of the 'less well off' getting a poorer deal!
• I think the Budget will need some measures to curb the rising house prices in the capital, and not just leave it to the BoE.
  Suggestions would include:
  - significant taxes on foreign investors not buying principal residences
  - reconsidering stamp duty levels - should different levels apply to people buying the first time/buying to let, different parts of the country etc.
  - Incentives for homebuilders so that there will be more supply
• I would get rid of stamp duty and fund it by increasing council tax. Making moving home more expensive makes the market more volatile.
  I would reduce the benefits cap to Ј30k p.a.
• As the Child Trust Fund was omitted from the last budget, I would like this raised again.
  I also agree with previous poster to reduce benefits cap to Ј30K.
• Surely it's logical for the minimum wage to be tax-free. If it really is a minimum, it shouldn't be taxed. This would mean the income tax threshold and NI lower earnings limit being raised as the NMW rises.
  Whilst there would be some loss of tax revenue, there would be a reduction in benefits paid to working people. It's horribly expensive to tax people, then give them their own money back after it's been through a huge, complex bureaucracy.
  On spending, overseas aid should be reduced - it's manifestly unfair to force the citizens of Britain to donate money to overseas projects, many in countries who don't want it (India), who can afford nuclear weapons (India, Pakistan, China), or whose attitude towards Britain is aggressive (Argentina).
• I suggested writing off the national debt, and instead of baling out bankers share that money equally among the population which would put it back into circulation.
  My other idea was that everybody has a flat tax rate of 10%, there is no tax avoidance and tax evasion should be punished by reclaiming the money and adding a substantial fine. It could work!
• Prosecute all of the politicians ripping off the country. Employ some more that may actually do what is in their manifesto and therefore what we employ them to do. Do the same with the bankers. That way we may not be in the mess we currently are and the budget then can contain more opportunities for the people actually putting the money in and also be spent in the way they would want it to be!!
• Allow cash to be invested up to the whole ISA limit, rather than half. Shares are TOO risky.
  Allow money held in Stocks and Shares ISAs to be transferred to a Cash ISA with no penalty.
  Scrap Housing and travel expenses for any MP living within 150 miles of Westminster. They can commute or rent locally like everyone else has too that commutes from that far away or further.
• cancel VAT on items where you already pay a tax such as fuel - we pay fuel duty so it's grossly unfair to then pay VAT as well.
• How about dropping the whole help to buy nonsense to stop inflating house prices and mortgages in one corner of the country and release taxpayers from underwriting speculators.
  A windfall tax on Royal Mail to retrieve lost revenue from grossly under-pricing the company.
• I have just emailed to ask for an overhaul of stamp duty - particularly the fact that each change in the rate applies to the entire purchase price rather than bands (like income tax).
• make sure the road tax money actually goes on the roads
• I believe that any company making substantial profits and/or paying their executives huge salaries, [say over Ј250,000] should not be allowed to employ people on minimum wage or zero hours contracts. Many working people are forced into claiming benefits such as child tax credit - why should the taxpayer have to subsidise their wages while their employers make huge profits? At the very least, it is the business who should pay the benefit. Minimum wage is only acceptable for small businesses making low profits. And please don't quote profits in a percentage - e.g. energy companies say they only make 5% profit which doesn't sound a lot until you realise they are making 5% of such a massive turnover that their profits can run into billions. Obscene for such businesses to be paying minimum wage.
  As to those who say that such measures will have these executives leaving the country in droves with major job losses - oh please, I am tired of hearing this. The same was said when the minium wage was first brought in and it didn't happen ten and won't happen now. Where are they all going to go? This still a great country to live in - apart from the fact that it is acceptable for a few to have so much money they couldn't ever spend it while many working people have to choose between heating and eating.
• Gosh, where do you start!? Agree with many of the above comments about stamp duty, All-cash ISA's, reducing the benefits cap to Ј30k, 0% tax on minimum wage, scrap the help to buy scheme which is just going to result in mass reposessions further down the line. I think all politicians within a 2 hour commute of Westminster should not get a second home allowance (they told us a 2 hour commute was reasonable for jobseekers!) - the whole idea of a home close to Westminster originated in the days when most sessions were held in the evening and went on late into the night when travelling home to their constituencies became difficult. That is no longer the case.
  In view of the destruction of the Devon-Cornwall railway in yesterday's storm, is it not high time the expensive and largely unwanted HS2 Rail programme was scrapped and the funds diverted to areas like this?
• 1. Tax cars by postcode - those in rural areas pay least as they have poor alternative public transport whilst those in cities pay highest.
  2. Scrap tv licence and all associated costly quango and collect licence as part of council tax so council just pays block sum.
  3. Scrap parental assessment on student loans (and save associated quango costs) by giving every student full maintenance and collecting from BOTH parents through tax code means testing. Currently absent parent doesn't pay and/or many parents don't fill in assessment forms leaving students struggling with reduced money.