More budget

[ewx]

Among the conclusions I draw from this article are:

• Tax credits are too complicated for accountancy firms
• Gordon thinks I'm a swing voter

Comments

[knell.livejournal.com]

America has swing voters. We have floating voters.

[aldabra]

They're different things, surely? Floating voters are undecided; swing voters are floating voters in marginal seats.

Since he's not setting tax by constituency, GB has to target floating voters in order to hit swing voters.

[lizardc.livejournal.com]

Alternatively, accountancy firms understand tax credits perfectly well but suspect that they are too much for the average reader :).

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

Or even

1) Tax credits vary too much based on other factors to put on a two-dimensional graph, and
2) People receiving tax credits don't have enough money to spend on accountants to make it worth accountants' while thinking about them.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

I did wonder about the latter, in fact...

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Possibly. However given that the effect of this year's budget ignoring tax credits is rather regressive I think the extent to which tax credits ameliorate this (or fail to do so) is an important part of the picture. Having look at the documentation for them and rapidly given up, I'd kind of hoped that the professionals would do a better job.

Frankly the BBC has a large enough news operation that you'd have thought they'd be able to produce their own graphs, too...

[vyvyan.livejournal.com]

AFAICT, WTC depend not merely on your personal income, but also on whether you are single or in a couple (only one of you can receive it, and your household income is what's assessed), how many hours a week you work (must be at least 30 if you're over 25, or 16 hours if you're younger), whether you have a disability, whether you're claiming any other benefits... So I doubt you put it on that graph in a straightforward way - you'd need a whole slew of graphs for different options.

But if you want to play with some different possibilities, this site might be helpful:

http://www.taxcredits.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/qualify/WhatAreTaxCredits.aspx

(link to calculator at the bottom).

[rmc28]

Tax credits are far too confusing, and I *like* paperwork, ffs.