Overtime should be tax free

[RedneckStumpy]

If you are giving up family time to bring home extra money to support your family, why should that be taxed?

Yanbu op. I can completely understand that train of thought.

I work full time. I earn a decent, full time income and pay my tax. I have colleagues that earn the same as me and work their hours, pay their tax based on their full time income, and that’s it...fair enough.

I choose to do overtime on the weekend sometimes. Yes, it’s my choice, yes i’m lucky to have a job and a head on my shoulders and all the rest...but that’s not the point.

I do an extra ten hours work, earn an extra ten hours income. That’s (obviously) beneficial for me, but also for my company who would otherwise have had to shell out a fortune for temp staff and therefore the taxman.

My colleague and I have already paid tax on our full time incomes...to have to pay it on the work you do over and above what is expected or required...I think there’s a good arguement that it should be exempt.

I don’t think it could ever work in practice but yes, I do think it would be fairer if tax were capped at full time hours.

What if you live alone and don’t have family, but a cat? Would it be unfair then? 🤣

I do find it unfair that someone who works 80 hours per week for £40k gets taxed the same as someone who works 1 hour per week for £40k.

What is this fabulous job that pays £40k for 1 hour's work a week???? Because I'm going to retrain for that!

More to the point why are pensioners taxed on their pensions??

We're only taxed on our pensions if our income exceeds the £11850 personal allowance. Just like everyone else. Why wouldn't we be?

Can I get paid for my overtime please? That would be a good start. I don’t get overtime at all.

As for not being taxed on it. Maybe I could declare I’m on a zero hours contract the rest are all overtime?

We're only taxed on our pensions if our income exceeds the £11850 personal allowance. Just like everyone else. Why wouldn't we be?

^ this. It's 'income' tax not salary tax.

If I remember rightly the OP lives in the USA doesn't believe in public services and thinks taxation is theft.

So how can we fund our public services?

If you earnt the money, tough shit pay the tax, idgaf how you earnt, overtime or what, you have a moral duty to pay tax

I do an extra ten hours work, earn an extra ten hours income. That’s (obviously) beneficial for me, but also for my company who would otherwise have had to shell out a fortune for temp staff and therefore the taxman.
My colleague and I have already paid tax on our full time incomes...to have to pay it on the work you do over and above what is expected or required...I think there’s a good arguement that it should be exempt.

That's not a good argument that you should pay less tax, it's a good argument that your company should pay you a higher rate for overtime (in respect of the extra costs they are saving by you doing the work). They are the ones who are benefiting most, not the government.

I think overtime should be taxed - it's income after all.

If I was to be throwing around tax cuts (which I probably wouldn't anyway, given the state of public services), I would be backing tax deductible childcare, and tax deductible public transport commuting costs (capped at say £5k - i.e. a reasonable commute, not flying in everyday from abroad).

But yes, overtime should be taxed.

I wish I got paid for the hours of unrecognised overtime I do every week that is just expected of everyone. I’d be over the moon to get taxed on pay for it cause at least I’d be getting paid!

^^ This

I think OP is seeing the disincentive of the tax system, and why on the face of it it seems odd that if you choose to work more, you have to pay more for schools, hospitals etc.

On the other hand, the minimum wage is massively subsidised by government. People make very little tax contribution (they do through VAT), tax credits subsidise low wages into companies, and people rely on other benefits to live.

Maybe to balance out the minimum wage and tax, people should only pay tax on the maximum equivalent of 40 hours of minimum wage, and the minimum wage needs to be set at a rate that provides the income for the country. Then if people work more or earn more, they keep it - but the minimum wage would be appropriate for everyone working to pay their share.

If I remember rightly the OP lives in the USA doesn't believe in public services and thinks taxation is theft.

Brit in the US, and yes

@RedneckStumpy
We're all intrigued. How do you propose to fund public services with no income tax.?

The government should be able to support itself through business. So government owned business selling oil, arms etc.

Roads, education etc should be paid for by those who use the service. That would mean toll roads instead of road tax.

You're fucking deluded.
You want mainly state owned companies so therefore extreme left leaning.
But then private responsibility ie right wing

Ok, I'll get a five hour contract and work fifty hours a week 😂

Selling oil etc fine, but that's not enough.
Toll roads, fine for motorways, not for middle of town.
What about schools? For the child whose mother was raped.
What about hospitals? For the person who is disabled. For the elderly.

If we didn’t tax income, where would we get the money to run the country ?

Help for the less fortunate and less able should come from community level not government

You’re on another planet. I’ll stay on mine, thanks.

Schuyler

That’s fine we don’t need to agree

How would community level help work ? For example, how would your local community run a university or a hospital ?

Only thing with bonuses is that DH earn fractionally over the 40% rate and someone who earns a couple of k less than him a year takes a hell of a lot more of their bonus home than him

No this is not how tax works. DH and his colleague both pay the same tax on all earnings including bonus. Your DH pays the higher rate on the 2k he earns more than the colleague only.