BBC to scrap free licence fee for over-75s

Originally Posted by pip08456

Glad you did the reality check then.

It wasn’t hard...

Originally Posted by pip08456

It is when you take a reality check. Is this break in June a Christmas break?

It was 7 months ago and still relevant in June 2019.

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by Maggy J

They are not required to have two homes especially those who represent London constituents.

I wonder what proportion of the over 75s live in a household with lots of freeloading adults? The royal family being one.

I think we are wandering into the realms of nonsense. This decision is completely pointless and won't gain much in the way of funding for the BBC in view of the outlay to run the organisation. They should have just paid their over paid executives a lot less in wages.

As a crown property, Buckingham Palace has never required a TV licence, meaning that the Queen has never had to pay a TVL, even before she was 75!

She probably needs one for Balmoral, as that’s the private property of the Windsor family, not the Crown.

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by Chris

She probably needs one for Balmoral, as that’s the private property of the Windsor family, not the Crown.

Maybe we will see her putting in a claim for Pension Credit to keep her free TVL licence at Balmoral then

After all, she did try to claim for a heating grant for bills in 2004 and for a new heating system in 2010 from a fund intended to help impoverished pensioners

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

Maybe we will see her putting in a claim for Pension Credit to keep her free TVL licence at Balmoral then

After all, she did try to claim for a heating grant for bills in 2004 and for a new heating system in 2010 from a fund intended to help impoverished pensioners

tbf, she didn’t try to claim it...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11403544

A royal aide asked the government if the Queen was eligible for part of a £60m energy-saving fund in 2004, the Independent newspaper said.

I very much doubt she was in the loop for that discussion...

[papa smurf]

Originally Posted by Hugh

tbf, she didn’t try to claim it...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11403544

I very much doubt she was in the loop for that discussion...

I think she overheard people talking about it when she was in the pension Queue at the post office

Originally Posted by papa smurf

I think she overheard people talking about it when she was in the pension Queue at the post office

Probably goes straight into her Coutts account...

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by Hugh

tbf, she didn’t try to claim it...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11403544

I very much doubt she was in the loop for that discussion...

True, i'm sure she didn't personally instigate it, but these people were working on her behalf

Many self employed people are now being chased for tax arrears after their accountants used Loan Based Remuneration Schemes to reduce tax liability. Their defence that these schemes were brought about by their accountants working on their behalf have been met with the blanket statement that, despite employing accountants to deal with their financial affairs, it is ultimately down to each individual to personally ensure that their tax affairs are appropriately in order.

It can't be one rule for one person and another rule for someone else.

---------- Post added at 20:48 ---------- Previous post was at 20:30 ----------

Yet more demonstrations and outrage from pensioners groups on the news this evening about their loss of approx £3 a week.

Where were they when their pensions were going up above inflation and disabled people had their benefits cut or frozen? Where were they when benefits for children were slashed?

Discussing applying for a grant (and then not applying after discussions) ≠ using a dodgy tax scheme...

Loan Based Remuneration Schemes - People who use these schemes had their salary paid in loans, instead of being paid in the usual way. Normally, when you’re given a loan, you have to pay it back, often with interest added.

But these loans are paid to people in such a way that means it’s unlikely that they’ll ever have to repay them. In other words, the person receiving money from a loan scheme kept it all. And, they don’t pay any tax on this money, even though it’s clearly income.

Do you really believe professional people didn’t think/know that using a scheme that meant you avoided any tax on earnings was dodgy?

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by Hugh

Discussing applying for a grant (and then not applying after discussions) ≠ using a dodgy tax scheme...

Loan Based Remuneration Schemes - People who use these schemes had their salary paid in loans, instead of being paid in the usual way. Normally, when you’re given a loan, you have to pay it back, often with interest added.

But these loans are paid to people in such a way that means it’s unlikely that they’ll ever have to repay them. In other words, the person receiving money from a loan scheme kept it all. And, they don’t pay any tax on this money, even though it’s clearly income.

Do you really believe professional people didn’t think/know that using a scheme that meant you avoided any tax on earnings was dodgy?

Most just tend to shove everything into the hands of their accountants and leave them to it whilst they concentrate on their business/career. Unwise, but true.

My salient point was that people are expected to take an interest in their affairs and cannot hide behind the third parties working on their behalf.

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

Most just tend to shove everything into the hands of their accountants and leave them to it whilst they concentrate on their business/career. Unwise, but true.

My salient point was that people are expected to take an interest in their affairs and cannot hide behind the third parties working on their behalf.

This is true, but you should be able to rely on professional advice and you should be able to sue them if they get it wrong and incur a loss for you.

If you run your own business, you are more concerned with growing that business, getting more customers, performing the service and dealing with invoicing, bills etc, and it is easy to pay insufficient attention to important matters that are with the professionals to sort out on your behalf.

What you say is correct, but it ignores the difficulty that many busy businessmen face.

Let's not stray away from the topic please.

[Mr K]

Problem is people see BBC in the title and go on their usual rant. Maybe it should be renamed to:-
'Govt. to scrap free licence fee for over 75s', which would be more accurate.

Originally Posted by Mr K

Problem is people see BBC in the title and go on their usual rant. Maybe it should be renamed to:-
'Govt. to scrap free licence fee for over 75s', which would be more accurate.

Except that it wouldn’t be more accurate. The government and the BBC negotiated this as part of charter renewal. The BBC agreed to take on funding of free licences and so they continued after the government stopped paying for them. It is the BBC that is now scrapping the universal entitlement to them in favour of means testing.

If you want to be accurate, you have to actually be accurate.