Just has the canvassers round for our Conservative MP asking if I could guarantee my support!
Problem is being slightly left of centre I don't think either of the current parties are my cup of tea at the moment.
Got to give the guy his due though, he did listen to my local concerns and bigger concerns, mainly the significant stealth taxation that has hit under the conservatives which has increased my marginal rate of tax to significantly more that I would have paid under the last labour Government:
Namely: child benefit lost. Paying £9000 tuition fees for my kids, (would have had to have paid the accommodation costs anyway).
Effective end of salary sacrifice for company cars etc.
I earn £20k a year more and actually have less clear money at the end of the month since the Conservatives came to power and I know its temporary but its effectively at least 9 years worth.
(Sorry for the rant)
Last edited by: zippy on Sat 16 Feb 19 at 12:54
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Well if labour get in, they will be less circumspect and more enthusiastic about adjusting your level of wealth down to that of the lowest denominator. All in the name of a fair society of course.
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>>Labour....
Yes this lot are the left wing Trotskyites, the labour of old that had been hidden away since the days of Foot and Kinnock.
New Labour was effectively a social democratic (liberal) party and the Conservatives under Cameron were initially held back but he made the mistake of pandering to the right wing of his party rather than being firm with them.
I see Chuka Umunna has quit the Labour whip. If he wants to set up a centrist party then he hasn't got long to do it.
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>>I see Chuka Umunna has quit the Labour whip
Has he gone yet? Don't see any confirmation as of 1.37pm
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My bad, I misread the article - it suggested he was about to resign the whip.
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7 Labour MPs have left.
tinyurl.com/y59yg2fh
Last edited by: Lygonos on Mon 18 Feb 19 at 10:42
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I wonder if some of the Conservative MPs might do something now?
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I somehow doubt whether you will see an election soon at the behest of either the Conservatives (once burnt) or Labour, as split as could be and with a leader widely considered to be an idiot, although it has to be said that he has been unfairly ridiculed in the media.
But if the Conservatives' accord with the creationists breaks down, it could all fall apart very quickly.
Last edited by: Manatee on Sat 16 Feb 19 at 14:38
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>> stealth taxation that has hit under the conservatives .............
>> Namely: child benefit lost.
We don't need an increase in the population in this country.
Please explain to me why I should give you money if you have children.
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>>Please explain to me why I should give you money if you have children.
Because they're the ones whose income tax is going to pay for your pension, medicines etc.
Last edited by: bathtub tom on Sat 16 Feb 19 at 22:37
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>> >> stealth taxation that has hit under the conservatives .............
>>
>> >> Namely: child benefit lost.
>>
>> We don't need an increase in the population in this country.
>>
>> Please explain to me why I should give you money if you have children.
>>
It's a complaint about inconsistent treatment.
I paid taxes for several decades before my kids went to Uni, supporting those that were going for no fee.
To my mind, I was insanely hoping for the same treatment when mine went.
It's the same beef that I had with child benefits. Two parents on £49k each get the full allowance. One parent on £70k loses it all. It's a totally unfair system.
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Taxation is always inherently “unfair” to someone. So is life come to that.
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>> Taxation is always inherently “unfair” to someone. So is life come to that.
>>
Totally agree, but I like to complain that last year, including VAT and duties, I earned about £70k and paid about £60k in taxes and duties (including £9k student fees which is the equivalent of a tax to me).
Luckily I have savings.
Last edited by: zippy on Sat 16 Feb 19 at 23:49
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I have always, certainly as long as I can remember, thought about my remuneration in net terms.
I don't need the stress that comes with considering my tax bill.
In any case, it's kind of irrelevant what your gross remuneration is. Well, to everyone except the tax man.
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p.s. my Father always maintained, seemingly genuinely, that a large tax bill was a privilege.
Needless to say I have never achieved that level of Zen myself.
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Totally agree, but I like to complain that last year, including VAT and duties, I
>> earned about £70k and paid about £60k in taxes and duties (including £9k student fees
>> which is the equivalent of a tax to me).
>>
>> Luckily I have savings.
I suppose some might say that you're lucky to earn enough to pay for all those things, perhaps look at it that way.
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>> I suppose some might say that you're lucky to earn enough to pay for all
>> those things, perhaps look at it that way.
>>
I agree with this, also with the point about child benefit subsidy. Did your family planning include State funding then? :-)
On your stated tax costs...
An online tax calculator tells me that on £70k you'd have a net monthly income of £4052 - £16300 tax and £5000 NI pa.
You consider your offspring's £9k university fees as a tax ( - I don't, nor would others) but let's call your tax bill £30000.
You said you paid about £60k in tax last year, including VAT. So the remaining £30k must, I assume, be VAT.
Most of that would be at 20% rate but let's be generous and say it blends to 15% as a few items are still 5%
That implies spend on VATable products of something over £200k doesn't it?
So either you are living well beyond you means or yours or my sums are really bad. :-)
Last edited by: smokie on Sun 17 Feb 19 at 09:27
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On your stated tax costs...
Rounded figures...
£3000 VAT on a new car, plus first years road fund licence.
£1000+ fuel duty plus VAT on fuel.
£100 IPT
£15000 stamp duty on house
£9000 CGT
£1500 council tax
List is far from exhaustive.
Not including VAT on other purchases such as clothes, entertainment, gas, electricity etc.
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Wow, so in 12 months a new house and new car. Those aren't usually regularly annual costs so you ought to average across the years when you don't change them.
A £9k CGT bill implies a gain on an asset of at least £100k doesn't it? Is that in your income figure of £70k?
Not such a bad life under the Tories really is it? :-)
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>> Wow, so in 12 months a new house and new car. Those aren't usually regularly
>> annual costs so you ought to average across the years when you don't change them.
>>
>> A £9k CGT bill implies a gain on an asset of at least £100k doesn't
>> it? Is that in your income figure of £70k?
>>
>> Not such a bad life under the Tories really is it? :-)
>>
No its not in income but from shares held from when I was very much younger, to pay the deposit on the house and some associated costs.
Still a right pain to have to pay it and when the Govt takes no risk in the transaction. I already had to pay 0.5% buying the things and the new buyer had to pay 0.5% as well. This tax lark is a nice little earner!
If I lost on the shares the Govt won't give me a negative capital loss tax credit back on them, though I could offset the loss against profits on other gains in the same year.
Last edited by: zippy on Mon 18 Feb 19 at 01:00
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So I've finished teasing you now Zippy, :-) and I will agree that tax is a burden, but not that it is unreasonable when you are "comfortably off" like I imagine most of us here are.
I too was a bit annoyed at CGT being levied on gains on share deals but no credit for losses (though maybe I missed a trick, being uninformed).
I think my biggest irritation is the moving of the State pension age. If SWMBO and I were about 6 months older, she'd have already been on a pension for a couple of years instead of having to wait a further three years, and I'd only have two to go. Currently I'm not working (as of nearly 4 years ago) with no income, nor does SWMBO work but she does have a very modest pension from early days at work. But it was a choice we made, and I'm not regretting it.
However I do realise that the State cannot go on funding everything forever and we need to accept that major change is necessary - especially in public services like the NHS and police - and it will affect the way the service is delivered, and we must adapt to the changes, as when it comes to it, many of those who say they would be prepared to pay a few pennies extra for improved services suddenly complain when actually asked to do so.
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It's the same beef that I had with child benefits. Two parents on £49k each
>> get the full allowance. One parent on £70k loses it all. It's a totally unfair
>> system.
>>
I think it's 50k as an individual now.
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>> It's the same beef that I had with child benefits. Two parents on £49k each
>> get the full allowance. One parent on £70k loses it all. It's a totally unfair
>> system.
Another way of looking at is that two parents each on £35k, in London the salary of a middle manager or school teacher with a few additional responsibilities, get it whereas a single earner on £70k doesn't (and pays higher rate tax to boot).
Not anything I've ever had to worry about. I will though apparently loose out by a handful of quid when pension contributions go up in April.
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Pension Contributions?
Whassat?
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>> Whassat?
Free money from my employer which I will of course eventually collect along with my contributions.
On my contracted 16hrs a week at £10/hr I don't earn enough. Voluntarily working Mondays to help out on an overloaded project means that in some months I cross the threshold to be 'auto-enrolled'.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Sun 17 Feb 19 at 08:18
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>>Pension Contributions?
>>Whassat?
About to go up in April for NHS.
Employer contribution is currently 14.9% and will rise to 20.9% of salary.
The increase is to be covered for GPs (as partners we pay employee and employer contributions) which looks like a stupid rob Peter to pay Paul bit of extra bureaucracy for no net gain.
Higher earning GPs will be paying 14.5%+20.9% = 35.4% of earnings into the NHS scheme from April, before NI and income tax.
No wonder so many are leaving the scheme or cutting their commitment to practice (I've cut from full time to 3 days/week since 2012
They can stick their 71% marginal tax rate right up their bottom!
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No less fair that a couple living together both earning £11k p.a. each and therefore no tax being paid on £22k income into the household. Whereas a single person earning £22k gets clobbered.
It's the household income that should be taxed, not individuals.
What about Council tax? Why should a single person only get 25% reduction. Why not 50%?
Taxes are always unfair to someone.
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>> It's the household income that should be taxed, not individuals.
That used to be the default case where the household was led by a married couple. It made the wife a chattel of her husband; how do you solve that one? .
Higher earning couples could opt to be taxed separately.
>> What about Council tax? Why should a single person only get 25% reduction. Why not
>> 50%?
Why even 25%? Apart from the bins there's not much difference between my household's demand on the Council and that of the divorced person in the identical house over the road. Actually at the moment we also get a 25% discount; Mrs B is full time doctoral research student and therefore disregarded.
Of far greater unfairness is the reduction in Council Tax for people on very low incomes - long term sick/disabled for example. In some Councils they get 100% relief, in others (North Lincolnshire is the meanest I've come across) it's as low as 50%. A colleague believes that Tendring go in hard on non dependants.
Pensioners on Pension Credit get a full exemption. There's an interesting contrast there between the chronically sick who are nearly housebound and the fit as a flea pensioner in terms of benefits and some of the etceteras, like social tariffs for water, that go with them.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Sun 17 Feb 19 at 18:39
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> Why even 25%? Apart from the bins there's not much difference between my household's demand
>> on the Council and that of the divorced person in the identical house over the
>> road.
More related to potential income rather than anything based on demand of local services.
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>> More related to potential income rather than anything based on demand of local services.
Don't tell me that :-)
My patter when explaining Council Tax is to say anybody living alone, even if they're a Captain with Virgin Airlines, gets a 25% discount then go on to explain reductions for low income and effect of non dependants living with you........
Seriously though I suspect the 25% reduction was a concession to the folks who'd been winners when the Community Charge replaced the General Rate and who would otherwise lose again when we reverted to a property tax.
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Is an Election Imminent? - Zero
