20 Mar 2014

And Then A Bond….

George, firstly, I thought your impersonation of Mr Bean yesterday was quite passable! Well done! Other than that it was mostly just words wasn’t it?

A pensioners bond? Ten grand’ll get you what at fours, after tax, twenty seven some dabs a month? Cool. I’ll have five of ‘em then. What? We can only have one each? Oh. How about that ISA game then? They’re giving tops of wot? Twos and inflation’s running at what? Twos? Oh. The mattress it is then.

Then there was that interesting thing about that interest taxing stuff and scrapping the tens bit before you hit the twenty rate even though it’s been taxed ‘till it looks like the limp lettuce leaves you find in a Big Mac. Georges pals and lots of other people shouted, “YES!!” to the zero rate. Lots of other people thought, “So what number will they glue in front of that zero any time they want to?” Others were thinking, “Man, if only it was that simple.”
To help those latter folk, here’s a simple explanation;
….the tax-free £5,000 savings band will only apply if you earn less than £15,500 a year, or if some of your savings income falls into the £5000 that sits on top of the personal allowance.
Okay. You excited ‘YES’ shouting fellows still as excited?

Retiring people won’t be obliged to ‘buy’ an annuity but will be able to use their own money as they wish, after tax of course, to do with as they wish? People doing what they wish with their money they’ve worked for and the little they’ve saved over many years? That’s a tad radical don’t ya think? I’m guessing that when folk come to attempt to get their hands on their loot, there’ll be lots of other words, printed really, really small, that’ll produce, as if by magic, many hoops of fire requiring lots of agile jumping through. And the older you get the less agile you become. So, Financial Advisors to the fore then eh? For a fee of course, but that’s only common sense.

Yesterday I was sitting here listening to George. Today I’m sitting here wondering why I wasted yesterday sitting here listening to George.

Never mind, while there’s music like this, they can keep on hittin’ me but I aint goin’ down!!

Quote;  John Marshall.

“The power to tax is the power to destroy.”

            Alexis de Tocqueville.

“A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.”

2 comments:

A K Haart said...

I usually watch the budget or at least keep up with the key points as they come out, but as you say, it's just words.

Mac said...

The whole English language and any number of little helpers at their disposal and they still can't make anything they say 'sound' interesting and/or entertaining.