I am surprised to have seen little criticism, in even the left-leaning media, of the principle of raising the personal tax threshold and thereby exempting many thousands of additional people from paying tax altogether (Editorial, 23 March). It seems to be taken for granted that this is a good thing. I suppose it reflects how we have – after many years of denigrating it – come to the view that tax is an evil, best avoided if at all possible.
Tax is one of the ways we contribute to our society, make that society ours in a small way, have a stake in it and connect with others who are also members of it. Taking people out of tax, especially as they are people who are on the lowest wages and who are more likely already to have a feeling of being disconnected from society, whether it be because of the quality of their work and life, or their experience at school, or the kind of places in which they are forced to live – will only increase their lack of any connection, of any stake in the society of which they are a part.
Somehow, at some time, the link between tax and enjoying the benefits of a good society has been lost.
Charles Marshall
Bern, Switzerland
• Detailed information hidden away in the budget documents published by the Treasury show public expenditure beyond 2014-15 (Budget 2012: welfare cuts, tax cuts too, but retreat on child benefit, 22 March). The small print says that "in the absence of policy change, Departmental Expenditure Limits will continue to see significant real reductions in 2015-16 and 2016-17". In fact the average real reductions in spend accelerate from 2.3% a year in the current spending review period to 3.8% a year in 2015-16 and 2016-17.
This information confirms that spending cuts beyond 2014-15 will be more severe than the current round. They are currently unplanned by the government. An early spending review in either 2012 or 2013 is now almost certain, given that the key economic predictions on which spending review 2010 is based are no longer valid.
Clive Sparrow
London
• Apart from Churchill, there can be few chancellors who appear to know so little about economics as Osborne. It is difficult to see any significant impact on aggregate demand, and thus economic activity, from the budget as a whole, and some of the specific measures display a casual, but apparently wilful, stupidity. Here in East Yorkshire, the caravan industry has begun a tentative recovery from deep recession and some firms have started to re-employ people that were laid off in 2008-09. Imposing VAT on static caravans will increase costs by a fifth and risks a concomitant rise in unemployment in an area which needs exactly the opposite. What a relief that returning the country to the gold standard is no longer an option.
John Hindmarsh
Bempton, East Yorkshire
• In the light of the alarming rise in the cost of fuel, I wonder if the government might be planning to alleviate the situation for workers such as community care assistants who use their cars for tending to their vulnerable sick and/or elderly "service users"?
Social services contract out to the company I work for, who do not provide a company car. I am paid 20p a mile for my round (at weekends I drive about 60 miles to see all my service users). As things stand at the moment, I can make this up to 45p a mile by putting in a claim to HMRC – obviously I don't get the benefit of this until the following tax year. This amount hardly covers the fuel, never mind the costs of maintaining and insuring the car. I do hope the government will consider at least upping the 45p a mile allowance as soon as possible.
Name and address supplied
• The rumpus in the country about levying VAT on Cornish oggies (pasties) forgets the fact that a true Cornishman or Cornishwoman eats an oggie cold. They were originally made by bal maiden wives and taken down our tin mines for crowst (lunch). By eating time they would be cold…
Tim James
Penzance, Cornwall
• Deborah Orr writes about the Lib Dems, the budget and the pensioners (The Lib Dems have got a bit wiser than they were in the early days. But not much, 24 March). Her passing defence of the raid on pensioners misses one or two points.
The rate of inflation for pensioners is much higher than either the RPI or the CPI because pensioners buy heat and food more than clothes and electronics. Everyone should have a decent pension; if some are better off then let them pay taxes to reflect that.
The biggest loss of the budget measures will be suffered by those as yet not drawing a pension. When people in their twenties start to retire, they will find their tax allowance gone and, given current trends, their bus pass, free prescriptions and their heating allowance too.
So much for any claims of redressing some "balance". If the old lose it now the young will never see it.
Jim Cook
Reading, Berkshire
• Two points about George Osborne's claim that he was abolishing/freezing pensioners' age-related tax relief as a simplification measure. First, George Osborne himself set up a body called the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) in 2010. It was considering the issue of simplifying pensioners' tax, including the issue of the age-related relief. Clearly Osborne couldn't be bothered to wait, or perhaps feared they would not recommend abolition.
Second, the OTS's interim report notes that the age-related relief was itself a simplification. The then chancellor Denis Healey said in the House, "I believe all members of the House on both sides will know how much this concession will be welcomed by elderly people, who find the present system complicated and confusing." Clearly George the Spin thought it wasn't simple enough for him.
David Quinn
London
• Maybe the chancellor is right, and cutting the top rate of income tax will stimulate the economy. I bet yacht dealers in the south of France, the proprietors of ski resorts in the Alps, and property developers in the Caribbean are looking forward to a bumper year. Last week's Daily Telegraph included a supplement on journeys by private jet, with prices up to £18,000 per person. They're rubbing our faces in it, aren't they?
Dave Dalton
Richmond, North Yorkshire