More dosh, less tax
 

Fellas,
Just heard on Radio 4, a leaked announcement due for 10Am today. When we go away on Ops we're fianlly not going to have to pay any income tax and there's going to be an "additional payment" made too!

All of us, or just the men? Oh, and will that be a months tax back for how many days in theatre?

Tone has just said on BBC1 news that Des Browne will be making an announcement later today about benefits for our troops on ops - should be interesting....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6036309.stm

UK forces serving in Afghanistan and Iraq are to receive cash bonuses to pay off their tax bill, Defence Secretary Des Browne is set to announce.
BBC Political Editor Nick Robinson says it follows a campaign to stop soldiers paying tax on their earnings - something that American GIs do not do.

Whitehall sources say this follows an agreement between Mr Browne and Chancellor Gordon Brown.

Mr Browne is set to make the announcement in the Commons on Tuesday.

About fecking time although a little to late for me. I started my resettlement yesterday.:rolleyes:

Do you rekon I'll be able to back date my claims for the last 12 years*? No doubt it'd work out a pretty penny.:}











* I'm aware the computer would say no.

LOL Stacker spat me cornflakes out!!

I would not worry as knowing our president you will only qualify if your application is presented by both parents accompanied by there godparents.

Nice one Stacker!

This is way overdue.

Rumours at Marham suggest that this will not kick in until 2008.

If that is the case, it's just a ploy to make Tony :mad: Bliar look pretty, whilst hedging bets that we have far fewer folk OOA by then.

If they are going to do it, they must bring it in with immediate effect for it to have any real impact on morale.

What's the betting that the "bonus" will be taxed?

Well, if it's true, there goes tanche 3 Typhoon, aircraft carrier, A400m, Suppressant foam in the hercs, training ammo for everyone, etc, etc............

Aaaahhh,

it's so refreshing to see so much trust being instilled in our government by its military servants...

No Loss there then, dont see tem doing much in the desert these days, and with all the support equipment I hear it needs to deploy, not expecting to see it any further east than the plains of europe any time soon!!!!

As usual the cash falls short of "leaked" promises.

Its to be a tax free cash bonus to cover tax of those in theater. Brown said its too difficult to just give tax free pay.

Now the cynical side in me says that a change it tax rules would give troops a long term financial bonus when putting life on the line. However a cash bonus can be taken away without any notice at all, just like all our other allowances. :ugh:

Its not enough, too little and too late, and I bet it will disappear just like the flash in the pan promise it is. Still it will make Blair and Brown believe that they have made a difference and they will sleep better in their beds knowing that the service men are now well paid and dying happier.

You aint seen me right.

LSA + Income Tax = X Factor.

You are seeing the end of the "all of one company" X Factor, which is possibly a good thing for those that don't suffer from Salt-water activated bad back syndrome, or postingitis.

Will be interesting to see if they backdate the whole thing.

About Time
 

Nice to hear that the motherland has finally thought of compensating HM Forces for being shot at.....We've been looked after for years down under.

There was nothing that my RAF nosegunner hated more during Telic I than me making my cash machine "Ker-ching!" call every time we crossed the border.

Hope that it is suitably large and that you don't get rodgered!:ok:

The same for all ?
 

The way I heard it was that the tax-free lump sum was to be the same for all, and as such would exceed the tax deducted from the lower paid by a useful margin.
But would it be sufficient to cover the deduction of the highest-paid ? If so, then the lower-paid should be looking at some kind of bonanza.

Cynicism kicks in again. When the army and navy get their bonus (how can justly deserved salary be termed a bonus?), how long will it take the RAF to programme in a patch to JPA to ensure that those who deserve this extra payment will get the correct amount at the right time?

On itn news that it's £2200 per 6 month tour, anyone in the raf see a problem here!

Not really, they will just make the min tour length 6 months!! hurrah:mad:

Oops. Maybe you can aggregate it? Shouldn't take long to knock up 182 days in theatre? Watch the ship's programmes change as well. The COs will be trying to stay in the lat/long box for 182 days, the planners will be strong-armed to shorten the deployments, it happened with LSSA(AT+).

Backdated to 1 Apr this year - the Paras will be happy, but it should be backdated to when this shower of ****e first took us into this shambles. 1999......