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

Also @Confusedmumannoyedson by great benefits I mean quality education, subsides childcare, medical care.

Right now a two-tier society is being created by stealth. Schools aren't being funded so parents step in with tutoring, fundraising etc. NHS waitlists are so long, people are paying privately.

So anybody with the means is effectively paying double - one through tax, and a second time out of their own pockets, for what they need.

It really annoys me that you have to get top up benefits. Anyone working full time should be earning enough not to need top ups. Employers should be forced to pay a living wage

I imagine if I need nursing care, my house will need to be sold to pay for it

In truth: I very much doubt either would employ me. I’ve got shit customer service skills. I’m very slow at doing physical tasks and I know from working in McDs in my teens, I couldn’t handle the stress

I don’t want a free commute. But I do think it would be good to have some sort of reduction in tax for commuting by public transport (ie similar to child care vouchers)

It really annoys me that you have to get top up benefits. Anyone working full time should be earning enough not to need top ups. Employers should be forced to pay a living wage

So true. While we're in the subject, I think everyone should be able to afford to pay income tax. Nobody who works should be able to be derided as a non taxpayer. It's part of civic participation to be able to (earn enough to) pay tax.

We should be raising the NMW significantly year-on-year instead of increasing the personal tax allowance.

This is a little bit how it works in Sweden. Say my gross salary in Sweden is 36k. Income tax is around 32%, so that leaves me with around 24k/year.

However, NI and pension contributions are paid directly by the employer to the state and are not considered part of employees' pay. These contributions are also about 32% of gross pay, so even though my gross salary is 36k, it actually costs my employer 48k/year to employ me.

However, the employer contributions don't show up on my wage slip, they're not included in advertised salaries, etc., they're just not on my radar at all. On my contract, on my wage slips, everywhere it says my salary is 36k. The other 'missing' 12k that my employer pays directly to the government are just not on my radar at all, so I don't miss them either.

Agree. It sucks. I would like to be paid enough to live on. Unfortunately this way suits the government better, they make tax payers pay for us while their business owning mates get rich.

Tony Blair was the one who started the top ups mess to be fair.

And the current government has had 13 years to sort it out, to be equally fair.

What a wonderful attitude. I would be ashamed to admit to that.

The problem is it's not that clear cut.

I pay high rate tax.

I also struggle to work full time (but do) with bipolar (unmedicated because getting NHS treatment in my area was a nightmare with an 8 month wait then locum staff constantly leaving).

I don't get sick pay in my job, except SSP which I've never claimed because they make it so hard. So I just very rarely take any time off.

I'm taxed PAYE.

I paid for private psychiatry and therapy. At least £2K in one year.

I scored zero points when I applied for PIP because "you work full time so aren't disabled."

Because I was saving to buy a house I wasn't able to claim any benefits when too ill to work between contracts for several months.

Even the two times I applied for contribution based ESA, one advisor was very rude and made it too hard to claim and the second lost the forms. So I got nothing either time.

I feel like I pay a lot into a system I get very little out of.

Or don’t have kids if you can’t afford to feed them?

Relationship breakdowns, spouse dying, children born with disabilities... the list goes on. Unless you're suggesting that everyone should plan for every single circumstance that life could throw at you, don't be so ridiculous.

People can afford to feed their kids when they have them.
Your comment is the usual benefits bashing that ignores the data on who is on benefits and why. Job loss, life changing injuries, chronic illness, domestic violence are usually what pushes families into the safety net of benefits.

I'm on the same salary as you OP. Same tax. But I negotiated wfh 4 days a week because a £400 commute on that monthly income makes no sense. I was very clear with my boss, I wanted to work for them but I would be forced to work closer to home if they couldn't flex.

Like you, I was a net contributor for 25 years, then I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I was very glad the NHS oncologists, surgeon, nurses and radiotherapists were available to help me. The equipment was there. The routine screening was provided.

I'm back earning my £60k a year now, back to full strength, thanks to them. I don't begrudge them a penny.

I have some sympathy OP. I earn more than you (well earned - I have long covid now, so blasting through what's left of savings, don't know if I'll be able to work again). My resentment was more to do with tax fraud / avoidance on a larger scale, subsidising wages that firms should be paying, subsidising corruption within government, subsidising Brexit, subsidising effects of policy where people are sent in to disable others rather than isolate for a few days.

I have no issue with those claiming benefits and think the vast vast majority are claiming them legitimately. I'd be happy for them to receive more, rather than having so many going to foodbanks. The country spends 45 times more on tackling benefit fraud, rather than tax fraud for much less return. Some on benefits save the state a fortune - carers for example should be paid more.

With regards to childcare, I dropped some hours when mine were very young as two under two was unaffordable and it sometimes cost more to send them in than I earned (nursery just under £1k a week). I live in south east, so a massive chunk also goes on mortgage.

Agree with others who have said it is bizarre to be worse off after a pay increase or by working more - that is just nuts.

I try not to look at it because it boils my piss.

These are the same things that potentially happen to higher/middle earners with expensive mortgages and whilst you can potentially resolve that a little easier than you can with a child for obvious reasons, if this happened tomorrow you would not likely be able to sell the house quick enough to not end up in mortgage arrears with a knock on effect on your future credit rating etc. Also for every spouse who unfortunately passes away there are hundreds of posts on here where someone has 2 kids in a one bed flat already and is contemplating another, and the response tends to be 'it's OK you'll make it work, kids only need a mothers love, the council will have to help you with a larger house' etc etc and the reality is its a poor decision and nothing more.

That's difficult though. I work for a charity, our funding is from the health service. We've not had a proper pay rise for years because our funding hasn't been increased (in fact I seem to recall it was cut) and we're constantly expected to do the same amount of work (or more!) for less.

We also pay more than other third sector organisations locally - and I'm talking large nationals who hoover up contracts and have a lot of income.

And as an individual, we're managing on my income (1500 take home) and can't get UC because our savings are too much, but the savings are to get work done on the house which is really needed - not urgent yet, but it will get urgent over the next 1-2 years (and if we leave it too long, more work, costing more, will need to be done), and we can't get a loan as we can't afford the monthly repayments. Can't get the work done yet as we need another couple of thousand. Just trapped.

@OpenDoors72 I relate to this so hard it’s painful. I’m so sorry that this country doesn’t recognise those who are sick/disabled but not enough to get any help or support.

Not to mention safe roads, a police service - everything we take for granted, but which, in the days when taxes were raised only for wars, had to be provided by private citizens. It's a myth to say you're not entitled to any help. Your ability to move round safelt without a private bodyguard, to expect an ambulance to come if you're in a road accident, all sorts of things that make your life possible, is a benefit you receive.

I sense a resentment here of people earning a decent wage. This is how communism flourishes. Envious people want to bring down everybody to their impoverished level.

MN is frequently a race to the bottom. There is an enormous amount of envy and bitterness on this site.

While I think OPs position is understandable and something we need to be worrying about as a society, this is undoubtedly true.