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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think we can all afford to pay a bit more tax...

89 replies

HeyDuggee24 · 18/05/2017 22:30

Obviously I dont mean low earners, but anyone who earns the national average or above.

Both me an DH earn around the national average, and tbh I feel very lucky and a bit rich. That is with a ds in full time childcare.

I was looking at getting private health care at £100 a month and I've been thinking, I'd rather pay that in tax and have an nhs that helps everyone than pay an insurance company and probably never use it myself..

So, an extra 2% in tax each would be less than £50 each a month. Yeah, I'd like it in my pocket but I could live without it and if everyone who earned the national average or above paid it, it would add up to a lot surely?

It just all seems so dismal at the moment. The tories will take away from those who need it but everyone feels there is no way Labour can fund its manifesto.

Maybe if we all pitched in a bit we could still have good lives but makes others lives a little better too.

OP posts:
Morphene · 19/05/2017 00:37

yanbu

BorisTrumpsHair · 19/05/2017 00:38

Gove and Vine have just moved around the corner from me in London SadAngrySadAngrySadAngry

BorisTrumpsHair · 19/05/2017 00:39

Yes I would pay more tax.
I wish we looked more to Scandinavia for ideas as to how to run the country.

Shootfirstaskquestionslater · 19/05/2017 03:29

I don'the think that's a good idea sorry I personally can't afford to pay more tax than I already do and I don't make a whole lot after tax. I live on my own I have no help paying the bills and have no one else to rely on its just me and some months are tougher than others for me.

ilovesooty · 19/05/2017 03:39

What a fucking depressing thread.

I don't mean you OP - I mean some of the answers.

Kursk · 19/05/2017 03:41

I would say I am definitely libertarian rather than socialist. I want less government, and I believe that taxing the citizens is wrong. The government should be able to support it's self.

stopfuckingshoutingatme · 19/05/2017 07:19

Agree

Anyone that can afford new clothes , spa days , private education , waitrose , nights out etc can spare a bit more tax

The lack of perspective on this issue staggers me .

RainbowsAndUnicorn · 19/05/2017 07:19

No, I'd rather we made more cuts than penalise tax payers even more.

Political suicide to tell people they need to pay even more tax when we have millions of people choosing not to work/doing the bare minimum hours and using lots of the collected taxes to fund their lifestyle. It's not exactly a vote winner.

MovingtoParadise · 19/05/2017 07:25

I'd happily pay more tax and like the OP I've just taken out private health care at £80 per month. Would much rather this had gone to the NHS.

BurnTheBlackSuit · 19/05/2017 07:27

Government doesn't have a second home? He lives in London and has for a long time.

Sionella · 19/05/2017 07:31

YABU to tell anyone else what they definitely can and can't afford, OP. You know nothing about other people's circumstances.

What is abundantly clear from these threads is that lots of people claim they want to pay more tax. Assuming even half of them mean it, someone really should start a movement for the government to set up voluntary tax contributions to go to the NHS or whatever. Sounds like lots of people would contribute.

TheNaze73 · 19/05/2017 07:34

Pay more than enough as it is. I agree with Rainbows

BollardDodger · 19/05/2017 07:41

The NHS needs to run efficiently, which is something I think it is getting better at. Throwing more money at it will just cause it to waste that money.

Equimum · 19/05/2017 07:43

'Anyone that can afford new clothes , spa days , private education , waitrose , nights out etc can spare a bit more tax.

Yes and no, because if we all start paying more tax but many of us stop spending in other areas, VAT revenue etc goes down, unemployment rises ...... so it's really swings and round about - the government need us to pay both income tax and to keep spending. much higher taxes will also exclude some from private schools, placing extra pressure on the state system, probably cancelling out.

I do agree with some tax rise and would happily pay if I knew it was going to help. The trouble with the current NHS problems, is they probably need far more plugging than raising taxes can ever pay for. As others have said, it's a leaky ship (and I am very pro-NHS).

I think in terms of affordability, there is also a massive regional divide. Living in the South (which we need to do, as DH's job only really exists in London) our outgoings are unavoidably high. Cost of living continues to rise without comparable wage gain. An increase in tax would push many under in our area.

BollardDodger · 19/05/2017 07:50

The more tax I pay, the more effort I will make to pay less tax. If tax rates go up, I would put more money into salary sacrifice schemes, more money in ISAs, more money into the mortgage. So that curve thingy does have some truth in it.

OhTheRoses · 19/05/2017 08:01

Perhaps there should be an option to pay a little more tax to get different tiers of NHS care. Everyone getting a basic provision but higher contributors getting faster access at more convenient times. No changes to cancer treatment, etc.

mygorgeousmilo · 19/05/2017 08:08

I already feel like I'm being taxed at every possible opportunity! So no, I don't want to pay another £50 or £100 a month. The thing about private healthcare is that it isn't possible for everyone, each person in my family - bar the baby - has a pre-existing condition. In addition, not all experts/procedures/care facilities are available outside the NHS. Anyone that has regular involvement with the NHS will tell you that there are too many managers and fat cats, and too much unchecked spending, and that's where the problem is. The UK absolutely CAN afford the NHS, but it's badly mismanaged.... which is a whole other debate.

EdithWeston · 19/05/2017 08:09

You can make a voluntary donation to the government if you feel you are paying too little tax.

That might be more effective for people in circumstances such as OP, as they can already out their money where their mouth is.

Personally, I prefer to donate to charities, but for services that you think should be carried out by the government only, or which you think are better carried out by government, then it's the logical place to put your families benevolent contributions.

meditrina · 19/05/2017 08:11

"Perhaps there should be an option to pay a little more tax to get different tiers of NHS care. Everyone getting a basic provision but higher contributors getting faster access at more convenient times. No changes to cancer treatment, etc."

I would strenuously object to any prioritisation other than for clinical need.

Fab39ish · 19/05/2017 08:12

Dh is a hrt payer and would gladly pay an extra 1% if the money went to the NHS and Education.

ShatnersWig · 19/05/2017 08:12

As has been said on many threads of late, just throwing more money at the NHS isn't going to solve the problem. It is doing things it was never designed or expected to do. It is the fifth largest employer in the world. Staff went up by 300,000 between 2010 - 2015 under the coalition (now, clearly, they weren't all front line).

The NHS needs a total overhaul, not just money, but no Government of any party is prepared to do it because of the fall out and potential problems while it is being overhauled. It may be, I'm afraid, that the "free at the point of use" may have to change for certain treatments. I have a condition and all the NHS offers me is one injection every three months which only solves the problem for one month. If I lived in other countries, I could get this every month. On injections, I get one good month, one not so good month and one awful month. It affects my nerves, stomach, sleep patterns, memory functions and I may already have started dementia as a result of it being undiagnosed for 5 years. These injections cost 50p. But I can't have one every month, so I buy pills myself. About £40 a year. Which is still nothing. But this is a condition that seriously affects my health, will not get better and without them or more regular injections, I will start costing the NHS serious sums of money. But other people get all sorts of things on the NHS for free that do not affect their health anything like as seriously.

It needs sorting. But no one has the balls to do it.

BollardDodger · 19/05/2017 08:17

I would strenuously object to any prioritisation other than for clinical need.
In fact, a lot of people already have to pay more than others for no priority - I have to pay for prescriptions, the dentist, opticians etc

Miniwookie · 19/05/2017 08:20

wide are you having a laugh?? You think that a doctor who is getting paid per treatment is going to have your interests at heart more than someone in working in the NHS?

londonrach · 19/05/2017 08:22

No. we struggling as it is now. If i paid more tax wheres the money coming from. We on £30 per week food at the moment!

meditrina · 19/05/2017 08:22

Yes. Some services were never made free and point of use.

But access to them (whether free or paid) is made by clinical need, not prioritisation by paying.