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Tax changes - are you better or worse off ?

190 replies

throckenholt · 06/04/2011 08:41

Just listening on the news that only the top 20% will be worse off. I had never realised before that I am that well off to be honest !

I think we will be about £250 worse off if the online predictor things are right - we have 3 kids, 1.3 FTE salary (both work part time) with a middling salary (average about 40-45K between us). I think the money we will lose will be from falling off the top of the child tax credit limit (just).

I don't particularly expect handouts from the govt at my level of income, but I was surprised that our income puts us as high as the top 20% - I would have thought a bit above the middle. There must be a very long tail stretching out to the high earners.

It made me wonder roughly how many others are similarly unaware that they are classed as the wealthiest 20%.

OP posts:
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GiddyPickle · 06/04/2011 09:13

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Quodlibet · 06/04/2011 09:26

Tax changes pretty academic for me - most of my income has been wiped out by various cuts.

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SanctiMoanyArse · 06/04/2011 09:32

Slightly better off this time around (carer / student on PT wage) but the new proposal to cut the disability portion of tax credits siignificantly will leave us without the rent top up and homless so it's short term (am planning on getting back to work next year when ds1 settlerd in his SNU but events seem to conspire against it- third child just entered autism diagnostic process).

I am not convinced by the nature of the changes to child benefit though, or that £45k is a top income. I think we were on about that before dh's redundancy and it was confortable but still very easy to be knocked by a large bill such as a car breakdown or house repair. And of course it's far less in some palces than otehrs- we're in Wales after all, houses in our town not as cheap as much of Wales (about £200k for a 2 bed) but compared to London......

It comes back to housing though I suspect; currently, the root of all evil. In order not to be moved too far from the two special needs units we depend on and the MS school where ds2 has extra SEN input we would had to top the HB up by £200 pcm whilst DH sorted the post redundancy mess; £45k should be enough but not with hosing the way it is.

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Niceguy2 · 06/04/2011 09:55

Yup totally agree. It really annoys me when people think that if you earn more than £40k then you are living it up.

Don't get me wrong, I know I earn a good wage and we're not on the breadline but I resent being told constantly to suck it up and pay more tax for the "poor & needy".

I've not got a big mortgage by modern standards, we have 1 car, we can't afford a foreign holiday this year. Hardly the lap of luxury.

I don't want handouts, I want a fair rate of tax, I want to see the money I do pay spent efficiently and not on some stupid pet project or bombing another country. I also don't want to throw good money after bad on the welfare system until they bloody improve it. There's a HUGE disincentive to work at the moment. My OH has just started a new job to supplement our household income and the attitude in the office is pretty much "Why should we work full time when tax credits mean we are just as well off working part time".

Whilst you can't blame the individual for making the most of the system, the system is wrong.

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Chil1234 · 06/04/2011 10:29

I've been worse off after every budget for as long as I can remember. No reason to suppose this time around will be any different.

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dreamingofsun · 06/04/2011 10:32

lets hope that AV doesn't allow the lib dems to govern outright as they will introduce a local income tax. they claim this reflects ability to pay - but as many of you so rightly point out, if you have a mortgage which is fairly new its likely to be large, and childcare costs and running a car to get to work can all quickly add up.

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TequilaMockinBird · 06/04/2011 10:35

I think we will also be worse off. Do you have a link to an online calculator/predictor Please?

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ruddynorah · 06/04/2011 10:40

i'll be £300 a year better off in tax. child tax credit is halved though, we'll get the very minimum i think it's £20. will also still get child benefit.

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peppapighastakenovermylife · 06/04/2011 10:42

I was shocked as thought we would lose everything. We earn about 45k between us and will still have some a month (although less). Our childcare costs do add up to around £1500 a month though!

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PlentyOfPrimroses · 06/04/2011 10:46

Just over £700 worse off, mostly through the loss of child tax credits.

calculator here

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KaraStarbuckThrace · 06/04/2011 10:47

Niceguy2 - I agree with you. £45K is a good income up in the North, but if you live in the SE/London it doesn't get you far - house prices and rents are very very scary!

We're probably going to be slightly worse off this year, DH earns above the threshhold (not much more) and I have a small income from being S/E. But we are largely debt free (apart from mahoosive mortgage) and I never worry about our ability to pay the bills unlike a lot of people I see on here and that makes me very very thankful.

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EldonAve · 06/04/2011 10:47

We will be worse off assuming DH gets a job

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going · 06/04/2011 10:48

We will be £732.19 worse off due to increase in tax and NI and loss of child tax credit. Dreading the fugures next year when we lose child benefit. This is all based on DH working full time, I am a SAHM and we have three children.

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mumblechum1 · 06/04/2011 10:48

Worse off.

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ruddynorah · 06/04/2011 10:50

that bbc calculator has us as £500 better off when i put dh in aswell as me. and it seems to keep the child tax credit at the £545, though the review paperwork i got said it would be half that.

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Katiebeau · 06/04/2011 10:53

With the new tax last year and this year and loosing CB we are about £500/month worse off. It is a lot but we are doing OK. I agree with Niceguy2 if the money was been spent where it really needs to be I can agree this is needed. Otherwise it just means we are paying off the debt or to support a benefits system which means it doesn't pay to work.

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Chil1234 · 06/04/2011 10:55
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Praline · 06/04/2011 11:03

I am going to be £551 better off according to the calculators, but we are on very low income of £20000 between us, 2 kids.

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sieglinde · 06/04/2011 11:04

We are worse off. I always thought the Tories and the posher sort of Lib Dems especially hated the middle class and now I'm sure of it. They like those on 150k plus, people like themselves, and they have little snivelly Dickensian reveries about the poor so they can sleep well at night. But people like us are scum, and yes, I am having a Daily Mail moment, so much so that I actually reproduce here a Daily Mail comment, or the parts of it I agree with:

The people hit most by these measures are those on 43-63000 pounds a year. These are the people who create employment or have creative and organisational skills that others lack... wage differentials in this pay range reflect hard work, long hours, extended self-financed training and talent. The idea that this key part of the working population should be penalised to protect many people who are not committed to their work, did not put in the hours over years, who have avoided educational opportunities and have not invested in their own skills is contrary to justice.

Apologies to the author, whose name is Meritocrat, but I thought this was a good summary. That said, of course nobody wants benefits cut to those who are ill or simply unlucky or disabled or who have disabled children, and I hate the way the Mail blames immigrants. But it does infuriate me that my perfectly able-bodied sister in law gets family tax credit so she can retrain in acupuncture because her crafting 'business' folded. I think she should get a job and train part-time, and by now I don't care how Unreasonable I am.

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PlentyOfPrimroses · 06/04/2011 11:12

This is only part of the cuts though. Have all the benefit cuts taken effect yet? Although we don't feel rich by any means (not much over £46,000 for two adults and two teens living in London) and will definitely feel the pinch, at least we are not reliant on HB for a roof over our heads.

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TequilaMockinBird · 06/04/2011 11:12

Thanks Chil :)

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BoffinMum · 06/04/2011 11:20

£982 worse off. Sad

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BoffinMum · 06/04/2011 11:21

We would actually be 26k better off if I gave up work. Hmm

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BoffinMum · 06/04/2011 11:21
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Chil1234 · 06/04/2011 11:22

"I always thought the Tories and the posher sort of Lib Dems especially hated the middle class and now I'm sure of it."

GB wasn't all that fond of middle-income earners either, if you remember. He threw the odd scrap their way with the Child Tax Credit but he was famous for his stealth taxes otherwise. Like it or not, the average household income in the UK is circa £25k and only 10% of the population have an income in excess of £51k. So, regardless of where you happen to live or what you choose to spend your money on, if you're on more than £25k you're technically better off than most. And, given that we have a system which involves a redistribution of wealth from the better-off to the poorest... some of us pay in more than others.

Having said that, I'm glad that there is a wholesale welfare reform going on and a revision of public services at the same time. When some are being asked to contribute so much, waste and profligacy elsewhere in the system unacceptable.

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