Budget 2009 Taxes

Having just attempted to watch the budget I'm glad I didn't have laces on my shoes, gloomy doesn't even begin to describe it. The BBC have a handy over view of the main points.

The headline grabbing 50% tax rise on high earners just seems pointless, people who earn £150,000 generally don't pay PAYE and that amount of taxation will move their money elsewhere, particularly since the government are giving them until April next year to do just that.

Raising tax on fuel, drink and tobacco which is Brown's favourite tax, is where they'll get their money from. Yet fuel going up means everything that's transported will to, so higher food, goods, travel, import and export costs. Which just hit's everyone hard.

I'm glad however to see pensioners being helped with a raise in the basic state pension, and increasing the ISA allowance is a good idea, as why people should be taxed twice on money because they save rather than spend is beyond me. Though everyone won't benefit from this until April next year and with interest rates at 0.5 and ISAs at 2-3% it's a token gesture.

Overall I'm just left feeling really pessimistic, these figures for borrowing and spending just look terrifying, and any scheme a gimmick. I wanted to see a budget that dealt with problems, not political point scoring. Seems however I'm not alone, protesters are gathering at the Treasury to demonstrate against the Budget, including some Labour MPs.