The Dental Manifesto - Who gets your vote?
As the political debate hots up towards the General Election, i have personally reviewed each of the manifestos of the three main political parties, for two main themes, Dentistry and Tax, always an interest to the readers of this newsletter.
I have no political bias, just an interest in what the manifestos state. Although the manifesto's are the parties plans for the next term, we have seen many points stated in manifesto's changed when a government comes into power.
UK Dentistry
Although we may feel Dentistry is an important subject to us all, to the main political parties it is hardly worth a mention. A review of both the Labour and Liberal Demorcrat manifesto's has no mention about UK NHS Dentistry.
If Labour are elected, i can only imagine they will continue what they have already started in NHS dentistry, whilst if the Liberal Democrats come into power, who knows their plans?
In the Tory manifesto, a paragraph or two is dedicated to UK Dentistry. I have detailed this below:
"Under Labour, fewer people are able to see an NHS dentist. So we will introduce a new dentistry contract that will focus on achieving good dental health, not simply the number of treatments achieved. This will tie newly-qualified dentists into the NHS for five years and allow dentists to fine people who consistently miss appointments. these changes will allow us to give one million more people access to an NHS dentist and give every five year old a dental check-up."
An interesting proposition by the Tories, but many young dentists I know won't enjoy the prospect of working in the NHS for 5 years, post qualification.
The idea of fining those for missed appointments is a good idea, but will this really enable one million more people to access an NHS Dentist and give every 5 year old a check up? I very much doubt it.
I guess credit has to be given to the Tories for even having a paragraph about UK NHS Dentistry in their manifesto, whilst Labour and the Lib Dems state nothing, but whichever party comes into power, I personally feel, NHS Dentistry will not be a high priority in the first term.
UK Tax
In contrast to the word "Dentistry", the word "Tax" in all manifesto's appears many times.
All parties claim to have the solution to our woeful economy, some cutting public spending, whilst others feeling we need to spend even more!
I have outlined the key points i gathered from each manifesto below:
The Conservative Party
The Tories plan is to cut public spending, and thus reduce the burden of raising taxes.
Initially, they plan to cut the Corporation Tax rate to 25%, and to 20% for Small Companies (good news for those Dentists who are Incorporated) with a plan to reduce rates in the future, to make the UK tax system the most competitive in the G20 within 5 years - quite a bold statement to make, but good for business if this actually happens!
Perhaps Lord Ashcroft may even start paying taxes if the Tories do come into power.
The Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats plan to increase the personal allowance upto £10,000 per annum, effectively handing those on low and middle incomes about £700 each. They will pay for this by offering tax relief on pensions only at the basic rate for anyone who makes pension contributions. Not good news for most dentists who make pension contributions and get higher rate tax relief on their contributions.
More interestingly, is the fact the Lib Dems want to change the way Capital Gains Tax is calculated and paid. They state they want Capital Gains tax to be taxed at the same rates as Income tax. Although they have not provided any real detail here, this could lead to Capital Gains Tax rates of up to 50%!!! Not very attractive for those wanting to sell assets with significant capital gains or those planning to incorporate!
The Labour Party
Labours plans are a continuance of their current tax plans, a bankers bonus tax, a 50p tax rate for those earning over £150,000 per annum, reduced tax relief for higher earners on pension contributions and now most recently announced an additional 1% in National Insurance charges to commence in 2011.
Labour claim this increase will ensure jobs are saved since the money collected will be used to help reduce the debt burden and help prevent the double dip recession, whilst the Tories claim this will hurt the UK economy even further, with employers laying staff off even quicker in these lean times.
My Own View
I don't claim to have a crystal ball, nor am I leading economist, but i have an opinion on this matter, some will agree, other's won't. From the limited information presented in the manifesto's it appears evident to me, a businessman, the Tories tax policies (unsurprisingly) suit UK business and enterprise. Labours policy of continuing to spend and not cutting back on public services, although perhaps noble, strike me as naive. Any shrewd businessman, knows that to survive the long term, and to service their debt, that sometimes some drastic cost management is required, even if it may in the short term incur some pain for some.
A shrewd businessman would be looking for much better value for money from their providers, yet, i feel the current Government, does not really understand what good value for money is. Spend, spend, spend on Public services to get out of this economic mess rather than looking at where they are getting good value for money is something that is missing, in my opinion, in the current UK government.
Whilst the Lib Dems plan to change to Capital gains tax regime, is very anti -entrepreneurial. The whole premise of being an entrepreneur is to create and bulld value in a business, but if you are taxed at 50% when exiting the business, the whole notion of becoming an entrepreneur diminishes rapidly. If the Lib Dems want to be a party for business, as well as the people, they will need to drop this idea of making the rates for Capital Gains Tax the same as Income Tax!
So where does this leave us?
Well i have highlighted only 2 areas from the manifesto's, NHS Dentistry and the UK Tax plans....there are many other important areas to discover and conclude upon.
Despite my research into the manifesto's i am still open to suggestion as to who to vote for!
Last Chance to sponsor Arun for the London Marathon!
Months of training, and it all comes down to this Sunday at 9.45am when i will be running the London Marathon for the British Heart Foundation, inspired by my 23 month old daughter Aashima, who has several major heart conditions and will be having open heart surgery at the Royal Brompton later this year.
As I write this i have managed to raise £4000, so thank you if you have sponsored me already, but i would love to raise more! So for my last push in Marathon training, if you enjoyed this newsletter (and even if you didn't!) a donation to my running fund would be most welcome.
You can sponsor me here:
http://original.justgiving.com/arunmehra
Have a great week ahead!
Arun Mehra FCA
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