January 2016 CrazyOC Alternative Budget

Crazyoc's alternative budget aimed to correct some of the perceived issues in Bnzss's budget, both major and minor. One of the most major policies was the proposed implementation of a Negative Income Tax, creating an income floor for all over the age of 18. He has described this as fulfilling the Libertarian tenet that "Everyone deserves equal opportunity."

## Overview

In response to the then-Chancellor of the Exchequer, Bnzss's budget in December, Crazyoc drafted his own alternative one which he believes fixes some of the glaring issues in the budget. First, we will look at it as a whole. The Chancellor of the Exchequer’s Spending plans, which total £1.024 trillion, are equal to 51.4% of the GDP and rivalling Greece and Sweden. Crazyoc's Alternative Budget, which totals £0.721 trillion, are equal to 36.4% of the GDP, closer to Australia and Switzerland. The alternative budget has a total surplus of £1.3 billion, compared to the £36 billion deficit of the December 2015 budget.

### Income

In this alternative budget, Crazyoc recommended changes to income tax, namely reducing the personal allowance from £14,500 to £14,000, reducing the basic rate from 30% to 25%, the higher rate from 50% to 40%, the additional rate from 55% to 45% and increasing the higher rate band from £40,000 to £50,000. These changes save the average taxpayer £460, the average basic rate taxpayer £245, the average higher rate taxpayer £6,600 and the average additional rate taxpayer £26,700.

His changes to corporation tax include reducing the main rate from 45% to 30%, scrapping the co-op deduction, merging the SME deduction into low income deduction, increasing low income deduction from 5% to 15%, reducing the medium income deduction from 10% to 5% and redefining low income as up to £150,000 and medium income as up to £10,. These changes will save the average corporation £20,600, the average low income corporation £18,700, the average medium income corporation £13.9k and the average corporation with no deductions £1,800,000.

The Cigarette Duty will be raised from 18.15% to 20%.

The lower rate of Capital Gains Tax is reduced from 17.5% to 15%, and the higher rate of Capital Gains Tax is reduced from 27.5% to 18%.

Finally, the carbon tax introduced in the last budget will be raised from 7.5p per kg to 10p per kilogram.

### Expenditure

The Expenditure side of the budget has the largest overhaul, more specifically the Work and Pensions department. All of the benefits outlined in the previous budget have been scrapped, excluding Child Benefit, Funeral Payments, Housing Benefits, Industrial Injuries Disablement, Widowed Parent Allowance and Severe Disablement Allowance. In the place of all the policies repealed, Negative Income Tax will be implemented with a subsidy rate of 57.5%. Anyone over 18 earning nothing would be given £8,050 per year. Due to the subsidy rate, for every additional £1 earnt, 57.5p is taken from the Negative Income Tax until it reaches £0 when the person earns the personal allowance. In addition to this, child benefit has been increased from £25 to £30 per week, Housing Benefit has been halved from £100 per week to £50 per week, Widowed Parent Allowance has been increased from £111 to £120 per week and finally Severe Disablement Allowance has been increased from £52 to £55 per week.

#### Health

The Department for Health has seen an increase in funds of £14 billion, with £12 billion going into training and employment costs for new nurses and doctors as well as increases to Attendance Allowance, Constant Attendance Allowance, Incapacity Benefit, Disability Allowance, Carer’s Allowance, Statutory Sick Pay and War Disablement Pension.

#### Education

The Department for Education has increases in its allowed running costs for all areas of education, increasing standards and reducing class sizes. A Learning Disability Fund of £2 billion has also been implemented, allowing further research into learning disabilities to be funded and to allow more focused and effective education of those with learning disabilities.

#### Transport

The Department for Transport has seen an increase of £4 billion to its budget, with small increases in research for renewable energy sources, a commitment to HS3 and also a £4 billion Nuclear Development Fund to help secure Britain’s energy needs.

#### Defence

There have been no substantial changes to the Ministry of Defence’s budget, except a commitment to keep the budget at 2% of GDP which increased its budget by £3 billion.

#### Home Affairs

The Home Office has seen a budget increase of £3.4 billion, with an extra £1.1 billion for the police force, £300 million increase for the Border Force and an acknowledgment of the existence of the Single Intelligence Account, with a budget of £2 billion.

#### Justice

The Ministry of Justice has seen £800 million worth of increases, with £500 million for the Prison Service and the rest to be allocated by the Secretary of State for Justice.

#### Communities and Local Government

The Department for Communities and Local Government has seen the one of the largest increases of £11.4 billion. This includes an increase in the social housing budget from £100 million to £400 million, the creation of a Housing Development Fund of £5 billion and an increase of local government funding from £75.9 billion to £82 billion.