Sorry for the TOT post.
I've taken to leaving my ally two stage ladder on the roof bars of the van.
Mainly me being lazy. Can't be arsed to keep taking it off/putting it back on.
Secure enough, lockable ladder clamps.
But I wonder - how much extra is this costing me in fuel?
Diesel 1462cc Renault van, seems to run on fresh air anyway.
If the fuel saving overcomes the lazy git in me I might be motivated to take it off/put it back on.
Haven't you heard?
In next year's Budget there is going to be an extra band of vehicle excise duty for Renault vans with aluminium ladders on the roof. £750 per annum. This is specifically targetted because of the road space that these take up and is supported by 99.9% of the population, who don't have one and don't see why anybody else should.
If the driver is identified as "a builder" - characterised by the rolls of £20s in the pocket, and having a large number of aquaintances with the same given name - Mate, there is an automatic surcharge. Handymen are exempted, of course, since they don't fall into either category.
It'll increase the consumption but by how much is vaery hard to tell. A lot will depend on how fast and for how long you drive, blasting down the motorway for an hour or three will add more to your fuel bill than a steady (not stop/go) 30mph local trip.
The only way to tell would be to the maths over several tankfuls with and without the ladder.
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one still ranting about the budget.
I love the headline grabbing 2p off corporation tax - funny how the 2p added to small company (
Power required goes up as the cube of the speed.
If you mainly drive at 30mph, you'll never see a measurable difference. If you mainly drive on motorways, you may well see a few % difference - a roof rack can make a few % difference to a car driven mainly on motorways.
I have to agree with my MP on this one. Con trick. it's not even as though it's even a very well constructed one.
... and which have the potential to replace the sunset industries as a means of fueling the economy.
All that will happen is that small firms will look for ways to avoid generation of paper profits.
I took a quick flick through the comment emails on the BBC News web site. Not scientific of course, and perhaps Auntie is being selective, but only a very small number of people had positive things to say about it. What was especially interesting was those at the lower end of the remuneration spectrum who feel very agrieved about the rejigging of the entry level rates. I haven't done the sums, but it does appear that they are hard hit in percentage terms.
I was amused to watch the TV reportage with some couple in Sheffield who to begin with were c*ck-a-hoop that they would be out of the 40% tax bracket for the first time for a long time. Then it was explained to them that pieces were being taken away elsewhere. I think that these people must imagine that when they reach the 40% threshold it applies to *all* there earnings or something.
Not worth starting yet... experience should suggest that all the really nasty stuff to screw businesses with will dribble out in the IRnn (or whatever they are called these days) public notices that follow in the next few weeks with the details of the measures only hinted at on budget day.
I also find it interesting that they promote a reduction in corporation tax as a move to promote investment in business. I can never quite see how that is supposed to work - companies pay corporation tax on profit, which is what is left *after* expenses (and hence investments in the business) have been paid out.
Then you have these nonsense of "tax credits" for businesses (so much for simplification of the tax system)... The R&D one is offered to encourage businesses to grow - a good many small companies don't actually want to grow - they won't have a business model that can sustain it. Also that and the environmental tax credit can only (IIUC) be claimed by companies with employees - so that rules out 73% of companies in the UK!
The reduction of CT for larger companies was a "nice" gesture to show what they really think of small businesses!
An astonishing number do seem to think that. I have had people explain to me that they don't want (or are going to turn down) a pay rise because it would push them into the higher rate bracket!
I was told that by an employer at one time, to explain why my smaller pay rise was good. Haha. But of course all savings are taxed at the higher rate, which may be an issue if you have a lot of .. savings. Simon.
One wonders how they cope with filling in their tax return. Still, I suppose with PAYE and with building society interest deducted at source, there's not much to do there.
All income over the higher rate threshold is taxed at the higher rate regardless of source (i.e. including that from savings), but that still does not result in any negative benefit in moving into higher rate as such - you just get a lower rate of return on them than you do for the first 35k ish of income.
Probably pay an accountant to do it at greater cost than the tax owed!
That depends on the form of them.
So put them in the name of someone not paying tax in the 40% range.....
HMC&R don't like small (that is, properly small) firms. A tax inspector once told me that to my face. They like firms with accounts and payroll departments which are easy to lean on and don't much care about paying taxes because "it isn't their money".
The State doesn't want you to save. They want you to be beholden to them for everything.
I understand his logic: if the only reason for you setting up a company is to save tax by paying dividends instead of salary, then he has no sympathy with you (and the vast majority who are on PAYE and have to pay full whack probably wouldn't either). If you are a company in the proper sense you still have advantages open to you that a self-employed person doesn't.
There was a time when NI contribution rates increased with earning and were not top sliced. So (e.g.) going from £5999 to £6001p.a. might have upped your NI rate from 5% to 7% and left you worse off.
Well when I was PAYE I did "defer" putting in my timesheets for a month or three so that the overtime payments ended up the following tax year not the current one otherwise I would have bumped the higher rate tax bracket. Seems a bit silly to have to pay more tax than I really had to, doubly so on overtime...
I never saw a Tax Retrun all the time I was PAYE, they only started appearing once I became self employed. My Tax Accounant (or rather his computer), does the all number crunching I pay him to provide tax advice and reduce my bill as much as legally possible by suggesting when things are (or aren't) carried forward/back etc.
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