Horse tax - have your say

[HHO admin]

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Defra proposes the introduction of a new body to look after animal health policy and its delivery; this will include all horses as well as farm livestock. The reason for a new body is to increase involvement and trust from animal keepers; so they, including horse keepers, will be represented on its management board. As both Europe and the UK have said taxpayers should not bear the full cost of animal disease outbreaks and control, horse keepers, as well as farmers, may be charged a levy to assist Government with surveillance and preparedness for emerging equine diseases. What do you think of this? Have your say below.

[Chunkie]

Yet another stealth tax hiding behind the facade of "animal health and welfare".

[marble]

surely all that is going to happen is that all the law abiding citizens will pay, and all the people who already do not pay tax, insurance, dog licences etc etc, and most important of all who have never paid for a passport for their horse/horses will once again ignore, and get away with.....

[LickettySplit]

Grrr....don't get me started. I strongly disagree with this on a number of counts but will try and keep it brief.

Recent animal disease outbreaks have occurred as a result of the maladministration of this government and, in particular, Defra. A classic example being the latest Foot and Mouth outbreak which originated in a government-owned site, the knock-on effect being that the lab was unable to work on the vaccine for Blue Tongue thus prolonging that outbreak too.

Why should livestock &amp; horse owners be penalised for the incompetence of Government agencies?

The introduction of a new body will add another layer of bureaucracy and inefficiency into the system and sounds like an excuse to extort money from the taxpayer which is likely to force many farmers &amp; equine trades out of business!

[nobbster]

i hate the fact that we have to tax horses, they wre here long before cars they are not costing any one but their owners money and the are not giving harmful gas ect......

arrggghhhh so annoying.

[oln]

Totally agree with chestnut fan, its just another way of making us pay for the incompetence of this government. this way they can carry on allowing disease outbreaks to get out of hand and not lose so many votes because of it!!!

[elizabethshaw]

So it sounds as though the government are lumping horses together with livestock for the purposes of widening their money making net. Horse owners are penalised at every turn - this governments' mismanagement of matters equine and livestock are a disgrace.

[lizzieuk1]

hmm makes you wonder why the government put horses into the 'agricultural' band from domestic now doesn't it!! as usual yet another tax for them to pay off their mistakes with grrr

[TicTac]

Ridiculous. More money for the government.........it's got nothing to do with animal welfare.........

[silverbreeze]

[ QUOTE ]
As both Europe and the UK have said taxpayers should not bear the full cost of animal disease outbreaks and control,

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Utter rubbish!!! Hard working people have to bear the full cost of the lasyitis epidemic that our country seems to wallow in!