The row over the cap on tax allowable tax donations is growing. As the Guardian reports:
The revolt over government plans to cap tax relief for charitable giving has spread to the cabinet and to some of the most influential voices on the Tory benches as the business secretary, Vince Cable, and Tory MP David Davis voiced their criticism on Thursday.
I haven't changed my position: I see no justification for higher rate tax relief. I do see no reason for a cap though, and I want better regulation of charities matched with an extended right for them to reclaim tax at basic rate. That's a logical, thought through, coherent position. That puts it light years away from where Osborne is.
The Osborne proposal was clearly not created by a politician. Surely no one with nous would have thought up such an elephant trap, or communicated it so badly? In that case this is almost certainly a Treasury drafted bodge to tackle undoubted tax abuse but without thinking through all the consequences, as is now all too obvious.
It adds to a catalogue of errors for Osborne that are shattering his political reputation as the great master thinker and strategist: neither talent is now apparent. More than that though, any other Chancellor with this catalogue of errors to his name in one budget would know that a reshuffle beckoned and the Department of Transport was the best port of call he could now hope for. That's unlikely to happen to Osborne though. Cameron can't think for himself; he needs Osborne. And reshuffles with the current state of the Coalition are almost impossible. So there's a real chance Osborne will survive. But it's going to take a lot of work to restore any belief that he is a credible manage of the economy now - and that's going to cost the Tories dear.
Unfortunately David Cameron Can’t think for himself but neither can George Osborne think for him. there is a vacuum of coherent thinking and styrategy at the top of the conservative party matched only by that at the top of the LibDem party that enables such badly crafted and ill thought through policies. Rather than thinking things through there seems to be a reliance on basic principles and any obvious consequences (as can be seen by the Health and Social Care bill) left unexplored or more likely willfully ignored.
Added to the whole psetrol in your garage it is giving the government a more out of touch and politically toxic image than even Gordon Brown did – it makes him look a genius for keeping the economy running when REAL crises like banking etc were actually going on. The Coalition is heading us back towards the kind of fragility that was around 5years ago rather than taking steps away from it, they so clearly had the misguided opinions of their own ability to acheive prior to the last election and through the agreement of coalition.
The only unerring abiltiy they seem to possess is the ability to cause crisis after crisis, with their inate passion to decry unions and demean public service, rather than any sense of national interest.
As usual, you are spot on. Where did Osborn gat his reputation as master strategist from? I’ve never seen it, myself.
Of course, you are assuming that what is going-on is an undesired effect of poor government.
Alter your viewpoint: And then you see the continuing deliberate destruction of public services for financial gain.
To some the political party is the end that justifies the means.
To others the political party is the means to the end.
All too obviously, now, we can see that the chancellor and the pm are guaranteeing their future outside politics, and their friends as well.
Master strategist does not necessarily mean master POLITICAL strategist.
AND there is the political elephant hiding in the corner and being very quiet: The coming electoral boundary changes.
Someone was talking about this alleged reputation of Osborne’s on Sky News this morning. I must say it’s the first I ever heard of it. All I’ve ever heard of Osborne is that he’s clueless and always has been, that Bank of England Governor Mervyn King has said as much and that the economy’s really run by some chap called Harrison IIRC. Osborne’s never had any reputation to lose that I can see.
Why should charitable giving receive any tax relief at all?
If a wealthy person wants to donate to Glyndebourne why should the poor subsidise it.
I see the moral argument for giving but don’t see why society as a whole should suffer because of it.
In the Victorian age of philanthropy there was no such relief as far as I am aware
I happen to think it is worth supporting charitable causes – BUT – expect better regulation of them too
And for that matter, why should charities themselves be exempt from tax? They pay no income tax, capital gains tax, stamp duty, rates. Why not?
The relief cap is billed as an attempt to claw back taxes from the very rich. It is nothing of the kind – it is actually a tax on charities, particularly those that depend on large donations. This is because the effect will be to reduce the amount that charities receive in donations from the very rich. I can’t see the rich INCREASING their charitable giving to compensate for the loss of tax relief, can you? – which is what would have to happen for this actually to be a tax on the rich.
Oh, and while we are on the subject of silly legislation, how about the proposed inheritance tax relief on legacy donations to charities? The Chartered Institute of Taxation has slated it as ridiculously complex and unworkable. Link here: http://www.tax.org.uk/media_centre/LatestNews-migrated/Charitable_tax_break_will_not_work
They really are an inept bunch, this Government, aren’t they?
I know its common for chancellors of both political shades to try and disguise the damage their budget will do to ordinary people, but this chancellor appears to believe we all came down in the last shower!
He must have thought we’d not notice his freezing of working tax credits or that part time workers to be eligible for said benefit now have to work 24 rather than 16 hours to qualify.
Or notice that disabled people considered capable of work will have to go on to Employment Support Allowance that pays for less.
Or his freezing of the pensioners tax allowance.
He presumably thought he could spin this as cracking down on tax cheats. There is, of course, a very real danger of charitable donations from the rich being affected. Oh, and the big rise og VAT on hot take away good (not just pasties) and a planned big rise on the price of beer.
He blatantly did all this to help pay for a 5% cut in income tax for those earning £150,000 or more!
Like other people have suggested, these policies are not incompetence, they are deliberately planned to benefit the better off.
The mistake seems to be thinking we wouldn’t notice his little surprises in the small print of the budget.