Should the government take 10% off any savings over 50,000 pounds?

Original post by tmr19

Why should they be compulsory? It's their money, let them choose what to do with it?

note I said static, if they're not doing anything with it anyway then why shouldn't they let the government borrow it and receive more interest than they would from it sitting in the bank.

Reply 184

tmr19

Original post by OkThanksBye

note I said static, if they're not doing anything with it anyway then why shouldn't they let the government borrow it and receive more interest than they would from it sitting in the bank.

Why don't you let people make that own decision for themselves instead of acting as a benevolent nanny state. There are also perfectly good reasons for people holding large amounts of cash/liquidity and it is none of the government's business on what private individuals choose to do.

Reply 185

OkThanksBye

Original post by tmr19

Why don't you let people make that own decision for themselves instead of acting as a benevolent nanny state. There are also perfectly good reasons for people holding large amounts of cash/liquidity and it is none of the government's business on what private individuals choose to do.

calm down, you're acting like I've already implemented it. A lot of people would think its a good idea

Reply 186

tmr19

Original post by OkThanksBye

calm down, you're acting like I've already implemented it. A lot of people would think its a good idea

I'm perfectly calm? I just put forward my argument against it...

I can't think of anyone I know who would support arbitarily forcing people to lend the government money. The minority who do should just loan the government themselves instead of forcing it on others

Reply 187

username5027880

I don't agree. Why should we be penalised if like everybody else we have had to work extremely hard to save up that amount of money.
I would see that as discriminating against people with a good amount of savings.
Its not right.

Reply 188

Original post by OkThanksBye

calm down, you're acting like I've already implemented it. A lot of people would think its a good idea

Only those who simply have not thought it through or who don't have any money!

Reply 189

OkThanksBye

Original post by mgi

Only those who simply have not thought it through or who don't have any money!

During times of uncertainty and volatility government bonds are extremely popular. A lot of people with a lot of money use them

Reply 190

Tracey1995

Original post by Karisa96

I don't agree. Why should we be penalised if like everybody else we have had to work extremely hard to save up that amount of money.
I would see that as discriminating against people with a good amount of savings.
Its not right.

I'm with you on this Miss Karisa,
Why should we work hard and save our earnings just to give away to government to what pay for those who probably not worked in there whole life but expect us good honest tax payers to keep them .

Reply 191

Original post by OkThanksBye

During times of uncertainty and volatility government bonds are extremely popular. A lot of people with a lot of money use them

Yes, and gold, crude oil and the stock market! But the money is not static and bonds tend to give half the interest that a stock would give! People who don't know what they are doing have "static" bank accounts!

Reply 192

StriderHort

21

Original post by OkThanksBye

During times of uncertainty and volatility government bonds are extremely popular. A lot of people with a lot of money use them

Well that's good news! They'll be no need for any of this mafia style 'compulsory' nonsense then and you can keep your fingers out other peoples pockets :smile:

Reply 193

Original post by StriderHort

Well that's good news! They'll be no need for any of this mafia style 'compulsory' nonsense then and you can keep your fingers out other peoples pockets :smile:

People who actually really do have a lot of money get stock brokers not government bonds!

Reply 194

tmr19

Original post by mgi

People who actually really do have a lot of money get stock brokers not government bonds!

100% agree. Nobody with any financial dilligence or meaningful net worth invests heavily in government bonds as they have a pitiful return and incur a high opportunity cost.

Reply 195

Sinatrafan

16

I think the first thing to appreciate is that very few people have £50,000 sitting around in a savings account. People who have £50,000 in disposable income usually have it fully invested in stocks, bonds, property, bitcoin, gold etc etc.

Investments can be difficult to value at any given time and may be held as part of an investment trust, a pension, an ISA or a LISA. Are you proposing that people are forced to liquated and sell assets in order to meet this new arbitrary tax?

What about pension wealth? Or people holding money long term in a LISA? Or people just saving money in a savings account for retirement? Is this also subject to this tax? And if not then people will just start funneling money into exempt investment vehicles and tax wrappers.

The next things to realise is that £50,000 isn’t a lot of money in the grand scheme of things over the course of a lifetime. Many public servants e.g. doctors, police officers, head teachers and professors at universities will have almost maxed out their £1,000,000 pension pot by the time they near retirement. Are you suggesting that these middle class employees should be taxed £100,000 and be more impoverished in retirement as a result? A million pound pension pot will only by about £30,000 a year in income in retirement; hardly someone who is “rich”.

There is then also a fundamental misunderstanding of how wealth is created. Savings and investment drive productivity and economic growth. The government cannot create wealth, it can only consume it. Wealth can only be generated from private citizens and we should be supporting economic growth so we can manage this debt and not tax ourselves into oblivion. Every £1 taken in tax is £1 less invested into the wider economy.

This crisis has shown that people have an incredibly low rate of savings and cannot weather any sort of financial disruption. This is supported by data which shows that the national savings rate is at an all time low.

Whilst I appreciate that some people do not have enough disposable income to save, there are also plenty of people who spend every penny they earn living an unnecessarily lavish lifestyles (e.g. new phones, clothes, car leases and holidays). They could have easily created a rainy day fund but decided not to.

We need to encourage people to save and be financially responsible and prudent, not bail out people who are careless with money at the expense of those who aren’t.

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 196

The OP who posted the original nonsensical post has long since disappeared. This is not surprising; he had virtually no clue about finance and clearly thinks 50k is a lot of money which he himself obviously does not have. Lets take 10% of his income as well!

Reply 197

Tracey1995