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

Hi. The top line may be more, but, once we take away tax. Ni, council tax, commuting costs and childcare. Then I definitely will not be taking home double your salary

I wouldn’t say it’s a struggle. But it’s just very annoying!

Because it's a blatantly and objectively ludicrous system, and I say that as a beneficiary. All very well to dismiss it as not much, but it is if you could really use it. Our combined household income is well over 60k but we get it, and two personal allowances as well. Single parents with a lower household income than I do but who miss out because there's one of them are more than welcome to mouth off about it, especially if they've massive housing and/or childcare costs.

That makes no sense. You have absolutely no idea how much my childcare/commute/council tax is 😂😂😂
I sympathise with you being annoyed, I think we've all felt like that at times. But I think you are being a bit unreasonable.

Pensioner avoid Council Tax only if they have been diagnosed with dementia. The rest pay on the same basis as everyone else.

There is far too much deference to pensioners in the UK vs everybody else, so no need to apologise.

Nothing ageist about it either. It is high time people pushed back because the vast majority of working age people are poorer now.

The pensioners (the wealthiest cohort in the UK now) need to start paying up now given they have continually blocked any attempt at them paying in their fair share.

100% incorect. They can avoid council tax even if healthy.

You're right!!! I dont. I'm taking an educated guess that commute and council tax won't be. For childcare: no idea...

Our combined household income is well over 60k but we get it

Do you mean because both of you are under £60k?

I have to say that I get really annoyed at the implications if you're a single parent.

I'm a "high earner" but if two people were earning half each of what I do each. the tax would be so much lower. Yet I have no one to share bills with etc.

Yep. Both under 50k after pension contributions in fact, so it's the full amount. But the combined household income is well over 60k, so we have more than a single parent who doesn't get any CB at all.

It's a stupid system, made even worse by the time and resources that the move away from a universal benefit has entailed.

Yabu

How?

YANBU 60k isn’t really much these days by the time you’ve paid increasing bills and commuting costs etc.

It’s always the way though. People with a salary that’s ‘decent’ but not enough to be rich just get milked absolutely dry. We pay for everything and get next to nothing in return. What’s the point in trying to get a ‘decent’ job these days just to watch your money get squandered by the government.

I’ll be encouraging my kids to seek opportunities abroad. There’s nothing good about this country anymore. The NHS used to be ‘OK’ but we barely even have that anymore so what’s left? Nothing.

If you receive pension credit you can also get your council tax paid in full.

https://www.ageuk.org.uk/information-advice/money-legal/benefits-entitlements/council-tax-support/

I think the calculation being done by the OP is disingenuous. Saying they ‘only’ have about £3k after all deductions is being vague about where the council tax, childcare, and commuting is being deducted. Most of us would be skint after all that being deducted.

I am a single person household in Scotland (so higher tax rate), who earns £44k. My salary with all of those deductions is a bit skewed, as my commuting cost is high. But before all deductions, it’s not brilliant, but it’s better than many others.

The bigger issue is the lack of investment in public services…. And I don’t get anything from the schools/pensions income offset. But I want the money to go to the right places, not for cronyist contracts for things like PPE.

That's not really a tax break though, is it? That's like telling yourself you got a tax break because you didn't buy a chocolate bar in the supermarket today which would have required you to pay VAT (sales tax).

Not intentionally being vague.

childcare, commute come out of the £3k each month

The point most people miss is:

1. Higher earners subsidise lower earners for childcare (nursery) over and above what would be fair in a progressive society.

1. Child benefit being capped at £60k is basically icing on the cake of (1).

So perversely, you have a higher earner with two kids on £60k who is materially worse off than two lower earners on £30k with two kids, primarily because they get subsidised nursery prices and child benefit.

These kinds of cliffs is why people get angry.

Its not fair or progressive.

Don’t forget that each of the couple will have a tax free allowance and won’t pay any tax at tue higher rate

YANBU OP - tax is too high. I also feel sorry for graduates who have to pay an extra 9% in addition for their student loans
once they earn over the replacement threshold.

I don’t think it’s unreasonable at all. How much of the tax we pay is due to the poor choices and idiot policies of our politicians? Some of the tax is to pay interest on the debts that this and previous governments generated, such as during lockdown and the bailout of the banks in 2008. Some of it is to subsidise ‘green energy’ policies, some to pay the bloated civil service and public sector pensions. That’s just PAYE tax of course, then you have things like fuel duty which you pay for out of your already taxed earnings. We need to be aware of just how poorly our politicians are performing in this regard.

When state pension was introduced the expectancy was 10 years pension payments after retirement - we are now paying for on average 20/25 years of state pension payments after retirement, but the uproar of state pension age was increased to 75 would be insane - so we all need to pay for these additional pensions.

I’m 37, I am in absolutely 0 doubt that when I’m 75 there will be no such thing as a state pension (hence auto enrolment and the changes due to come into force with that - applicable to all workers and no 10k earnings threshold) am under no illusion that although I’ve ‘worked and paid in all my life’ I won’t see anything back 🤷🏻‍♀️

@Elephantstone1 @TheThinkingGoblin what subsidised nursery fees do we as a couple get that a single person on £60k doesn’t get? As all in that example are entitled to the exact same barring the child benefit.

also @Elephantstone1 our joint net income of £4.2k still has to pay £1k nursery fees, commute and £245 a month council tax and the same other bills you pay, would I rather pay these bills out of a 60k salary than a 32k one? You’re damn right I would.

yanbu. Benefits went up 10% this year, did your salary?