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

I’m still waiting for the evidence. 🤷‍♀️

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

🙄

Thats always been one of the main problems in the UK.

Also, the anti-intellectual "I dislike math" vibe is very similar to what I have seen in the US.

In any event, the UK is circling the proverbial economic drain at this point, so we will are fairly close now to building the crucible for the economic reckoning that is about to hit us. Then we will just have to see how people react to being poorer.

@Blossomtoes this graph seems to back up the wage stagnation.

I think some people are going with Labour will be like the 90s again

I guess how it pans out might be different

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64970708.amp

I have zero objection to facts and figures, but correlation isn't the same as causation and it's utterly ridiculous to assert that no-one's had a real terms pay rise since 2008 due to the Pension triple lock. Surely anyone can see that there are so many other factors at work. The question we ought to be asking is why are wages so stagnant - and it's not due to "paying" for the triple lock.

The world has changed. Telling people they need to do what they were doing in February 2020 is stupid. That world doesn't exist any more, and neither does that labour market.

I think it would be better psychologically if we didn't see any income tax or ni etc on our payslips. Just have a lower headline salary and get the employer to hide it all so we never think about it.

Well we never recovered from the 08 crash & the fix was low interest rates which inflated assets & devalued wages. Throw in austerity, Brexit & covid & the shit has now hit the fan.

As of this week there is no NHS dental provision for new adult registrations in West Sussex. Where is the associated reduction in the NI bill for West Sussex residents?

Very little of the NHS is funded via NI. Most of it is funded via other taxation.

It will be very different primarily due to our current inflationary wage-price spiral (being goosed along by Brexit and our labour shortage).

That usually means inflation will be structurally higher for about 24 months (over 4%), and take even longer to get down to 2% (possibly 2026).

That points to even more real wage devaluation in the UK economy (this also means public services will deteriorate further).

Nothing Labour will do will be able to really stop that as they know they cannot raise taxes so they are going after the lower hanging fruit. Things like VAT for private schools (£1bn), and possibly pensions (reduce LTA, tax free amount etc) for £5bn etc.

These "adjustments" will get them some money without negatively impacting economic growth, but its small change. Its basically like re-arranging the deck chair in the titanic.

End result will be that the UK will likely stabilise around 2028 at a lower level of real GDP per capita.

Of course, the distributional impacts of this change will not be felt equally along the income distribution, which is why people are now trying to maximise their chances of coming out on top (this will be highly dependent on your negotiating power when it comes to your employment).

What alternative is there though to taxation? I'm in a similar position to OP and accept that I have to pay a lot of tax. I am fortunate enough to be healthy and to have been able to get good qualifications which means I have a good job. Not everyone has that privilege.

In any society there are always going to be those, who for a number of reasons, including ill health, disability, mental illness, poor start in life, etc, are able to work or earn a decent wage. Without taxation, what happens to these people? Do we just leave them to fend for themselves?

If your commute costs are high then look for a new job closer. Or better still 👨‍💻 mg job. Just because pandemic is over and you're going back to work doesn't mean you should be subsided for that. You're not owed anything because if where you live compared to your workplace. That's on you.

No idea what that emoji was - meant to say 'remote job'

talk about missing the point

I agree, OP.

It's even worse as a widow on similar wages (with childcare costs), paying more in tax than some families earning up to 99k if both parties are earning under 50k each and, even subsidising those on 80 something k on the same basis who are still entitled to receive child benefit!

The system is screwed.

I’m happy to be paying for those things (prescriptions, university, period products, baby boxes etc)I have benefited from them and happy as a higher rate tax payer to pay so that others do too.

I’m not sure why there is a lack of reading comprehension on here. I am not looking for a free commute. I am saying that it would be good if the cost of commuting on public transport had tax advantages. Similar to child care vouchers

@TheThinkingGoblin

I didn't know that some people don't pay at all. That's completely different; you're right. I stand corrected and take your point. Thanks for the post.

Thanks for this. This was a point of view (no, not a point of view, a fact, that I hadn’t considered)

The problem is not 'taxation;, but how it's distributed.
As discussed earlier in the utopian Scandinavian countries EVERYONE pays more tax. And EVERYONE benefits from the services.
Unrelated to tax, and along the same lines of thinking. Countries like Germany and France have a much better healthcare system than ours, but they charge for things like GP appointments.

A smaller and smaller pool of higher earners cannot be expected to fund a larger and larger pool of net takers. It's basic arithmetic and it won't work. Especially as government borrowing is almost at the limit.

Also @VioletCharlotte goes multiple ways obviously.
If, say 'middle earners' paid more tax but had free childcare and affordable housing - they wouldn't need to push it all to higher earners, would they?
But in a situation like now where a PP mentioned they were better off not working due to the high costs of childcare of course they won't want to.

i know families where only one adult is working part time, the other doesn’t work and there are a few kids of school age. I have no idea what they actually take home, but I do know that it’s not worth the PT worker increasing their hours due to the complex system in place.