To feel that having nearly half of your salary taken away is just not right?

[WinnieTheWho]

I don't earn enough to pay tax & NI but my DH has a pretty good job & salary for which he works BLOODY hard. I was horrified to work out after last pay day that for EVERY £1 he earned, he only kept 60 pence. This is due to a combination of paying very high income tax and NI, as well losing all of his personal allowance because he might get a bonus at the end of the year! It just seems that if you work hard to get paid well and you are a PAYE taxpayer, the Government & HMRC will just shaft you from all angles. It just makes me wonder why we bother? So... AM I BEING UNREASONABLE?

Didn't Vodaphone get let off a tax bill?

Big companies do get 'deals' on the tax they pay.

As infuriating as it is, apparently the idea is to stop them creating a holding company in somewhere like Switzerland which they can then claim has made all their profits and so avoid almost all UK taxes.

Cadbury's did this I think. Or was it Kraft who own them now? Anyway, it's commonly done so it's seen as being in the country's best interests to offer deals where they will pay taxes here instead.

I was thinking about this when they were discussing rich pensioners (ie those on over 100,000 pounds a year income) on the radio yesterday.

True they don't need their winter fuel allowance but they are actually earning 50,000 after tax, on money that they've already paid tax on, which might be alot if it is earned by both pensioners who are a couple but for one individual who is part of a couple (providing for both of them) it isn't rolling in luxury. And who knows how much other costs might rise in their lifetime, and they're also supposed to be saving thousands towards the time when they need care.