To be fed up with the amount of tax / ni I pay

[Elephantstone1]

although my salary looks decent from the outside. I’m beginning to get really fed up with the amount of tax / ni I pay.

so on £60k end up coming out with just around £3k per month from £5k after all taxes (including council tax) have been paid.

we’re not entitled to any help that others may get

my commute costs about £400 a month, but I’ve already paid tax on that money, so i have to earn about £600 a month to pay for it.

i know I’m lucky to be on a decent salary. Just with the col increasing, I’m getting a bit fed up

Many people in Scotland (myself included) are content to pay higher taxes to fund eg university fees, prescriptions, scottish child payment etc

I’m unlikely to get much of a state pension tbh at the rate that retirement age is rising.

I don’t get any benefits nor have I in the past

i did get maternity pay. A paltry amount. My employer paid full pay for 6 months, so I actually paid more in tax than i recieved in mat pay

I did get education, nhs care. But this is not “free” and I really wish people would stop the daft illusion that it’s free. It’s paid by taxpayers money.

Me too, although if I wasn't still working, I'd be paying a pretty small amount because my (gold-plated!) public sector pension is only £3k a year.

My MIL gets more money from the state than I do, although around 1/3 of it is housing benefit that goes straight to the council. She only worked for around 15-20 years, as she was a SAHP, so she doesn't get state pension and is on pension credit. Her pension credit is only about £9 a week less than my state pension, and apart from 2 years when I went to uni, I've been working for 51 years.

I had no idea that carers allowance was so low! Do you get any other top up benefits (not being goady, but you could literally not survive on £300 per month)

I don’t think that commute should be paid for by taxpayer. But I believe that season tickets for public transport it should be tax free in the same way that childcare is. Especially with the drive to have less car usage and more bums back in the office

To be fair the goalposts changed. Employer was happy for everyone to work from home, until they weren’t.

I don’t feel like I benefit from the tax and NI that I pay, compared to others who pay a hell of a lot less (in many cases nothing) but get an awful lot out of the public purse

Of course there needs to be a safety net. There is no doubt about that.

but I know plenty of people who game the system, claim various benefits and pay fuck all tax NI.

in the event I lost my job, there would be no housing benefit to pay my mortgage. Whereas if I rented, there would be housing benefit available.

I pay £84k (yup 84 thousand pounds) a year in income tax and NI. Just me. I take home 58% of what I earn. High taxes don’t incentivise me to earn more.

When Labour increase taxes, I’m planning to go part time. There’s a tipping point of effort/net reward.

I already feel irritated when paying school fees and private healthcare to make up for substandard public services!! When I have more free time, I’ll feel less irritated…maybe 😂

Meanwhile lots of people who keep society going who are on a lot less aren't whinging about having to pay to get to work they have been doing it all during COVID and still are.

The pensions in the public sector are pretty fantastic. I would love to put 10% and employer put 20% in.
But, the wages are generally less than the private sector

I agree op. Tax should be lower for individuals and families and mega corporations should be properly accountable. The amount Google and amazon should be paying in the UK alone would be enough to give a tax break to the squeezed middle. And before some daft sod pipes up that 60k isn't the middle and is lots of money, minimum wage is a joke with the current cost of living and we need to bring up wages to account for that they have stagnated for far far too long. Especially when compared with rising costs of things like further education and housing. Its designed to keep the poor, poor and make poverty an insurmountable hole to climb out of. So no I don't consider minimum wage to just be low income, I consider it a joke. I don't say that to insult anybody working minimum wage jobs, I say it because its hugely unfair and everybody is worth more than that and should be able to afford a better quality of life.

OP I am in sales and salary / commission based

Commission is paid once a quarter.

April gross £28K.
April net £16K.

This is the price we pay to live in a decent society, where unlike a low tax, zero healthcare country like America, we're not "free" to fight over scraps, die a painful death because we can't afford insurance, and watch tens of millions in abject poverty.

It's not perfect, there is a grotesque devide between the haves and the have nots (especially under this Tory rabble), but in the scheme of things worldwide, it could be worse.

In the Netherlands your employer pays your commuting costs. 0.19 euro cents per KM. Not legally mandated but the norm.

You say that like having had to work in person during covid means people are fine with ever increasing commuting costs that go up faster than their wages. I'm pretty sure being worse off in real terms bothers them too...

Yes it does bother us but we arent moaning about it on the internet like you are and we have been working in person.

If your original job has commuting I don't see that's it's unfair you actually having to return to office.

Let me show you folks what the problem looks like (links below my post).

Real average weekly earnings (adjusted for inflation: CPI-H):

Nov 2008: £497 per week
Apr 2023: £497 per week

Change over 18 years: 0%

This means that the change in real income adjusted for inflation for working age people has effectively been zero from Nov 2008 - April 2023.

State Pension (nominal):

Apr 2008: £90.70 (£80bn total)
Apr 2023: £156.20 (£191bn total)

Apr 2008 Adjusted for CPI-H: £137.18

Real State Pension Growth 2008 - 2023:

(156.20/137.18-1) = 13.85%

Who do you think is "paying" for that 13.85% extra (over inflation) that pensioners are now receiving?

Hint: something something....current working age people.

https://adviser.royallondon.com/technical-central/rates-and-factors/state-pension/basic-state-pension-rates/

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/x09realaverageweeklyearningsusingconsumerpriceinflationseasonallyadjusted

https://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/uk_national_pensions_analysis

They are just out for themselves. They want zero inheritance tax, free retirement care and better pensions.

I’d like to see 100% inheritance tax, am happy to use my money to pay for any care needs I might have in the future and am perfectly happy with my occupational pension, you can take my state pension but not to fund tax cuts.

Tbh if your in scotland you get free prescriptions and free dental care for examinations before treatment. We all pay for that ourselves. Hence the higher tax. You still get the benefit.

Nobody wants facts and figures. They just want to snipe at each other.
I've posted the IFS figures on several threads (including this) that show how UK higher rate tax is comparable to other countries, it's our 'middle earners' not paying their share.
Crickets.

What, none of you? Not only do I doubt that, I can't see how you could even begin to prove it.

As for fairness, people's subjective definition of that doesn't mean much. It's about the market, what an employer has to offer to get the staff they want. Some of them are paying for commutes indirectly, in that some jobs needing to be done in person have to be paid more to be filled (eg hospitality). Others aren't but might do better at recruiting if they did.

They may well do I take issue with people like the OP mowing about being asked to do the job back in office they they were employed to in first place.

Crack on, but it doesn't matter. You having worked in person throughout the pandemic has no impact on other people's terms and conditions.

But if their original terms say work in office, then get back to office.

Whinging when you are on a decent salary is pathetic.

I did get education, nhs care. But this is not “free” and I really wish people would stop the daft illusion that it’s free. It’s paid by taxpayers money.

Thats literally the point. It’s paid from tax.
So while you are complaining that some things aren’t paid enough, mat pay and pensions, you also want to pay less tax and seemingly a free commute.

Nov 2008: £497 per week
Apr 2023: £497 per week

that's shocking