
(Hat-tip: Andrew Sparrow’s Guardian live-blog, this chart originated on b3ta.com).
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22 Comments
The flow chart originated on b3ta.com
And I got castigated on twitter for jokingly suggesting that this flow chart might massively increase the UKIP vote. Because po-facedness is in, apparently.
Hahahahahahaha! Love it! :o)
Prefer a change, looked at Cleggs Manifesto, not for me.
He wants to cut child trust funds, child tax credits and winter fuel payments. Or that he wants to scrap the train to gain programme. Or that he wants an amnesty for illegal asylum seekers, Scrap Trident.
Take 58,000 out of prison and put them on community service in your area”
Increase tax on plane travel.
VAT on houses for first time buyers!
Those couples or anyone who wants to buy new homes on part ownership will be hit also.
Dont want his policy for closer integration with the EU and more of british laws made bY the EU?
Dont want a Move to the Euro and abolish the pound
Plus decides which area Non EU immigrants can go and stay and work and use services (your area i hope, we have enough) against human rights by the way.
But I hate Jeremy Clarkson…
I’d have to vote Green Party according to that!!!
keyo, it appears you haven’t, in fact, read the manifesto, but the right wing press. For instance tax on new built houses to encourage people to renovate does not equal a tax on first time buyers.
What Neil said – originally posted here:
http://www.b3ta.com/board/10016663
“Plus decides which area Non EU immigrants can go and stay and work and use services (your area i hope, we have enough) against human rights by the way.”
Why? That sounds like a proportionate solution within the margin of appreciation to a situation where some parts of a country have greater needs than others
Keyo, I’m not committed to any party, indeed according to this and others should vote Green. However, I do want to make this point about house-building:
the issue as I understand it is that there is no VAT on new houses, but people who improve older properties do have to pay VAT on the materials. This means there is a financial incentive to pull down and rebuild rather than improve older stock. That cannot be good for either the physical or visual environment. It also means there are properties on the market with different tax loads. If new properties are priced under equivalent older ones people will buy from developers rather than individuals. If new properties are priced the same as equivalent older ones the developers will get the VAT bonus. Anything to discourage the current preference for greenfield over brownfield sites is to be encouraged. An alternative would be to remove VAT on all building materials. Incidentally, it’s not VAT on first-time buyers as such, it’s VAT on new houses.
excellent!! love it 🙂 At least it confirms I am a LibDem voter lol
Fantastic, but does that mean I have to vote Green?
Their should be a bottom box asking if you hate Democracy, in which case vote Liberal Democrat and they will hand us all over to the EU dictatorship to be led by Van Rompuy and Barrosso.
More than just that, if you’re putting up a new building then you can basically pay no VAT on everything you put in it or can otherwise bill to the project. Homes are an obvious case, but consider what it means for offices where the building is worth far less than the contents. It can be significantly cheaper to build a new one than to buy an adequate existing one. This is rarely exploited, but it does happen occasionally.
This sort of tax loophole needs fixing.
This flowchart doesn’t work if you hate the Liberal Democrats.
What a refreshing change. A political party that steals other peoples’ work from the internet.
You didn’t use my Lib-dem campaign slogan though…
“Liberal Democrats: Redistributing the nation’s wealth until it’s all gone”
VAT on new homes will stop home building in its tracks and could puch first time buyers into negative equity before they even move in!
Developers typically make 5-8% profit. VAT will not increase the price, which is determined by the amount people can pay, it will have to be absorbed as part of the developer’s costs. I know this, becasue I am a developer!
Also, if you have already committed to buy a new home, will the tax apply? in those circumstances, the developer might indeed raise the price, but if the buyer cannot get a bigger loan or find more cash, then they default and lose their deposit.
And how long before VAT is added to the sale of older homes? That would depress everybody’s equity value by the equivalent of the tax. So vote Lib-Dem and see your main assett go down in value – great!
Sorry, this is just another ill-thought through proposal from the Lib-Dems that shows how little they understand about how the economy actually works!
Doesn’t it mean Tom Brake has to vote Green? :-))
@John Moss
You would be John Moss, Tory candidate for Hackney South in 2005, by any chance?
I don’t hate Jeremy Clarkson: he’s the human equivalent of flatulence.
A force of nature, but the product of a bad diet and bad digestion.
I won’t extend the metaphor. We all have functioning imaginations…
I often wonder if the people who talk about handing democracy over to the EU dictatorship actually notice when Elections are held? All LibDems could justifiably argue using that same thinking theres been a Labservative dictatorship in place for 80 years and that no other view of how to run the country matters. Labouring a Con and its got us where we are today.
…but surely that should read “if you hate the Belgians” => UKIP.
Strange that these anti-EU zealots are more than happy to take their orders from mega-rich Americans who do strange things in the woods at Bohemian Grove.