Quickies from the Budget

Almost against my better judgment I was posting tweets* during the speech and immediately afterwards, quoting the #budget09 hashtag link that enabled others to follow an aggregation of everyone's tweets* on that subject.

For the record here is a selection of the comments I tweeted* (most recent is at the bottom)

(* If you don't know what I mean when I refer to tweets etc, you may find this article about twitter on my other blog helpful)

Darling claimed that tax cuts announced in PBR are helping people now. Not true for self employed who won't benefit until 31/1/10 #budget09

Darling claims that retail price index will be NIL next year. So will standard VAT rate stay at 15%? #budget09

Darling has evidently accepted the loss relief he announced in PBR was overly restrictive. A good move. Shows he listened. #budget09

Darling will consult (hooray) as to how to achieve a reduction in tax relief for pension cont'ns for those with incomes > £150k #budget09

Will high earning public sector workers (>£150k) be equally penalised re pension provision paid for by their employers? #budget09

Darling claimed the £50k pa investment allowance introduced 2 yrs ago to be increased. No one has had a penny relief from it yet. #budget09

Why does he think that changing cap allowances for the current year will help NOW? Tax relief won't flow through until late 2010. #budget09

Misleading to suggest that anyone has seen tax go down this month. PAYE changes will first apply in May. And for the s/e 31/1/10 #budget09

Increasing taxfree limit of ISAs won't help many as interest rates are so low the tax charge is of little impact. #budget09

And the trap for the Tories. Labour puts up top rate of tax to 50% - to force a comment as to whether it will be kept or reduced. #budget09

Starting to go through the 93 Budget Notices. I think a BIG issue has been overlooked. #budget09

While I look for the BIG one, note that the increased 40% first year capital allowance will not affect tax cashflows until 2011 #budget09

VAT registration threshold is only up to £68k - not the £100k implied in @BookMarkLee April Fool Budget leak. No surprise. #budget09

NB:Budget effectively encourages entrepreneurs. Don't draw high earnings - Build business for the future; Tax will be just 18% #budget09