Are taxes too high?!?

[RedneckStumpy]

As a Brit living in the US I often get asked about life in the UK. Last night I Went through the usual discussion, then was asked what the taxes were like. So I outlined income tax and sales tax and was challenged with a question that stumped me.

Why would you bother trying to better yourself?

I don’t feel like we, as a family, are getting value for money, currently, for the level of taxes we pay. The education system didn’t want to know or deal with DS1’s dyslexia and we couldn’t afford private education for him. I’m middle aged and have a few things going wrong; I was refused an NHS referral because my pain wasn’t severe. Since when did people have to be in agony before you qualify for NHS help? I managed to pay privately for my varicose veins to be sorted last year, but they hurt and I’d had them for years and still no NHS help. I cannot afford private health insurance for my family.
For what we pay, well over four figures a month, it’s just not good enough.
I believe in the state and would pay more in taxes but it would have to be far, far better than what we have now.

Way too high. It forces most people into becoming a burden on the tax payer. My husband is paying the top band of income tax but can barely afford to keep a family. How is that right? The British government gives too much to the people at the bottom and those who work hard and try to be independent end up footing the bill. High taxes and high cost of living are regular features on our shall we move back home discussions. So far the response has been let's wait but its only getting harder to get by. At some point we will have to leave and take all of our taxable income with us.

user139
(40%+12%+9%+9%+whatever is at least 70% for higher rate taxpayers who have done both an undergraduate and masters under the current student finance system).
Your maths is bollocks
student loans are accumulated not doubled up - so only one lot of 9%
40% tax is only on the income over £45000, the rest is at nil or 20%
NI is only on part of earnings

Please can people add their nationality to their post (DE) or (CH) for instance.

The US is a joke - the inequality and disdain for supporting those in need is disgraceful.

Agree. The collective delusion that people in poverty and suffering deserve it for not trying hard enough is abhorrent. It's not a model anybody with a functioning conscience would want to emulate.

When the US stops being such a fucking human rights disgrace then they might be in a position to make comment worth considering. Until then... I don't really give a fuck.

High taxes and high cost of living are regular features on our shall we move back home discussions
Maybe we should have taxes back up at what they were under Margaret Thatcher ???????

@Merryoldgoat

Please tell me why you came to that conclusion

Inheritance tax is also too high and encourages people to think short term meaning people have less money available for care costs.
IHT affects around 9% of estates
just saying

amici
It is not for a government to define need
but it has the right to tax rentiers
like the head of Persimmon Homes
who gets paid £45m a year on profits caused by taxpayer funded Help to Buy

My husband is paying the top band of income tax but can barely afford to keep a family.

Sounds like he needs to do a course in basic budgeting skills?

My personal beliefs are more on the libertarian side.

I don’t see why the British government can’t make money itself, selling weapons and oil. Rather than taxing the people!

@Merryoldgoat
It isn't just about the take home pay though.
I do think people who don't earn £100k don't realise how much of that £100k does not become disposable income.
Dh earns about £100k as a surgeon. As well as his tax, he has to pay an accountant about £2k pa, he has to do cpd which costs about £10k pa, his insurance is £5k, his membership to practise is about £1k, his travel to work is high. I can't remember the exact figures, and of course there was his 8 year student loan to pay back, and think there's a few other bits and bobs; my point is he doesn't take home £60k.
You don't need to get the violins out, we have a nice life, but I repeat, it isn't the disposable income you might think.

We can happily afford to pay more.

@AnoukSpirit

You discribe the US as a human rights disgrace, please enlighten me, why is it worse than the IK

redneckstumpy
Are you happy that Trump plans to double the US deficit over the next few years by cutting taxes on the rich?

Are you happy that the US disenfranchises people for party political reasons?

Are you happy that the US has more people bankrupted due to healthcare costs than any other country in the world?

Not sure which state you vote in, but I vote against those things.

I’d happily pay a few extra % - (and I say this as someone who has in the past paid the additional rate tax band). I don’t think they are high enough to ensure that the whole of society can have adequate services (nhs, education, housing etc).

I agree though with the previous poster - tax strategies used by big business is a huge chunk of money that could be used for these things not to line the pockets of executives.

I’ve lots of relatives in the US and my best friend is American (lives here).

Every conversation I have with them tells me that the US values money above all.

Opposition to paid family leave - ‘why should we pay for your kids?’

Opposition to public healthcare - ‘why should I pay for someone else’s illnesses? What did they do for me?’

Utterly ludicrous minimum wage and hardly any employee employment rights.

The disgusting minimum wage paid to staff reliant on tips.

The lack of decent welfare provision for the poorest and most in need in society.

It’s all ‘pull yourself up by your bootstraps’ - we’ll what if you don’t HAVE bootstraps?

That’s my perception. Am I wrong?

The British government gives too much to the people at the bottom

The fuck it does. I suppose you, who claims to be struggling on a HR salary, would be able to survive on the absolute pittance received by people too disabled to work? All that stands between any of us and severe disability is a car accident or unpredictable major illness.

The point of society is to pool our efforts to ensure vulnerable people can survive and have a life that is more than simply an existence just as much as the better off. Humans cannot exist without a society, it's part of our humanity. It's not about killing off and punishing them or being selfish fuckers. The latter only works until you're unfortunate enough to be struck down by terminal illness or a freak accident. None of us can control that, no matter how hardworking we think we are.

What oil do you suggest we sell? I don't want to live in a country where services are paid for by providing the means to kill people. Our taxes are way too low and multimillion corporations are allowed to evade paying. It's a bloody disgrace.

@Ta1kibpeace
Undergraduate and Postgraduate loans are accumulated (although I did just guess that the percentage was the same but it is actually 6% so the marginal tax rate will 'only' be 67%)
Economically speaking it is the marginal tax rate (the proportion of £1 in extra income that would be lost to tax) that is important when people consider how many hours to work. The current tax and wage system heavily penalises overtime and even full-time work while rewarding part-time worker with higher hourly take-home pay for the same hourly wage, which in an economy with record low unemployment is simply a perverse incentive that has to be corrected (something that could only be done through tax decreases, the abolition of tax thresholds so every pound is taxed the same, or through basing income tax on hourly rather than total pay). Such disincentives to overtime also leads to short-term staff shortages in essential public services (such as train services) that could be prevented if there was a real financial reward for working extra hours that the tax system prevents.

Our tax is too low. And we complain about shit services. Do you know how we can get better services? Increase tax.

I used to live in the U.K. I now live in Ireland. With the benefit of comparison I think the UK tax payer gets tremendous value for money. I pay far more tax here and public services are much worse.

The appalling US prison industrial complex is probably one reason OP. Ours isn't anything like as bad. Then the death penalty for seconds.

I think taxes are too low, TBH: a situation that should be evident to anyone when you look at the way public services are struggling in this country.

I earn a decent salary, and am a net contributor. I'd be happy for my taxes to rise in order to pay for a better society. Unfortunately, I think I'm in the minority (aside from some PPS here) - which is why the Tories keep getting in. Rich people don't like taxes.