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

Anything earned between £100k - £125k is taxed at 65%, as you pay higher rate tax and yet your personal tax free allowance is removed. It’s farcical. It would make MUCH more sense to keep the personal allowance for everyone and increase the top rate of tax. Certainly stop people thinking that it is pointless going out to work for a salary in this range.

if you earn over £100k you don’t get any free nursery either.

MN is a weird old place! The desperation to shout down and shame anyone with money who complains about paying high levels of tax is palpable. Whether you like it or not, 'civilised' societies do not have to be high tax societies nor do they have to strive towards financial equality for all its members.

And medium to low workers pay far far less in tax than those living in countries with good public services. If we want better public services weALL have to pay for them, not just the ‘wealthy’.

You don't rate their plan for social care (which is the issue that has created bed and ambulance shortages)? Or paying a living wage so staff retention is better and we don't have care homes close because of staff shortages?

The issues that we have today are all linked to Tory policy/austerity/underfunding/messed up Brexit. You can't just look at each thing individually.
There are countries were the better off keep their money, real poverty, serious crime and dangerous hospitals surround them. Life isn't pleasant. There isn't the freedom to be out and about that there is here. As for paying people's benefits, what you are really doing is topping up buy-to-let/inherited properties, keeping profits up (by not paying living wages), so subsidising those who certainly aren't in need.

We may have a Conservative government but we definitely don’t have conservative taxation. We have the highest taxation burden since the late 70’s - but it’s sneakily applied to everything instead of just being on income so we have little real feel for how much we pay in tax.

And what do we have to show for it under a Conservative government that’s been in power for 13 years?

This country has created generations of families who have no incentive or motivation to work, especially in more deprived parts of the country, however, I also believe that we have created an economic divide between the rich and the poor by not having a defined multiplier on the rate a CEO can be paid in comparison to their lowest paid employees. Bring in the lack of taxation of multinational companies and you have the perfect storm.

There is wealth in this country and it should be more equitably distributed throughout all society whilst not being centred in the South East - and a bit of Keynesian economic theory wouldn’t go amiss.

When Labour left government public services were excellent. Compare that to now.

What low tax country do you desire to replicate?

YANBU, DH earns the same and takes home £3200ish a month. I earn half of that doing what is considered an important job for society. Our friend does nothing and gets (according to her) £3000 a month WTF???

YANBU OP, those who put the most in get the least out and it’s frustrating

But what's the alternative?

The problem in this country is not the level of taxation (which is still quite low compared to some countries), but what the government is doing with the taxes. 13 years of a Conservative government have decimated our public services, and yet people still vote for them, while complaining that the country has gone to the dogs. It's mind boggling.

@Bringabrolly
When Labour left government public services were excellent. Compare that to now
Labour were last in government at a time when the economy was booming and it was possible to massively increase public spending without the tax payer feeling it so acutely as the GDP was also growing. We are in a very different situation now, with an ageing and more unhealthy population, in a tougher geo political position and with developed economies all over the world struggling. No government on power today, including Labour, will be able to do what was possible in 90s.

It is a myth that the UK pays high taxes. Compared with many other European countries, the UK tax rates, particularly for higher earners, are amongst the lowest in Europe.

I live in central Europe. I pay approximately the same overall amount in taxation, healthcare contributions and pension contributions (these are accounted for separately, but in effect are the same as Income Tax and National Insurance in the UK) as I was paying in the UK. The cost of living is comparable with that in the UK.

I can see a GP just by walking in to the surgery. An ambulance arrives within minutes when needed. There are no waiting lists for vital surgery, and when I recently had elective surgery it took less than 4 weeks from seeing my GP to having the operation. There are twice as many doctors per capita as in the UK, and many more nurses, hospital beds etc. per capita than in the UK.

Education is free. Public transport is cheap and reliable - I can buy an annual ticket for about €1,000 a year that covers most of the country. Many employers actually pay this for their employees as a perk. Students and pensioners can buy €365 tickets - a year's transport for €1 a day. Public transport is currently free on Saturdays.

The UK has multiple issues. Successive governments have invested far too little on healthcare - Hunt cut the number of nurse training places and pissed off the junior doctors so that many emigrated - with the result that over 10% of England's population is on the NHS waiting list. Too little has been spent on education, on infrastructure, on housing, on social care and more with the result that billions of pounds are now required just to repair and replace the outdated facilities and to bring them up to just the minimum of standards deemed acceptable elsewhere. Billions in North Sea oil revenues were spaffed on tax cuts for the wealthy. The revenues from council house sales were snaffled by the government and wasted.

The biggest issue is the mis-management and lack of foresight on the part of politicians of all parties, and the dual fallacies that good public services can be achieved with low taxation, and that there are "contributors" and "scroungers", the latter of which are to be demonised and blamed for the problems caused by the incompetence of the politicians.

I'm not sure what planet you're on if you think that this country is anywhere near striving for "financial equality for all".

To be the people whinging about paying tax - what's the alternative? Let us know how you'd run the country with little to no tax coming in.

I also don't understand complaining about commuting costs. What would you like the government to do about that? Provide more public transport? But with lower taxes? Makes sense.

It is a myth that the UK pays high taxes. Compared with many other European countries, the UK tax rates, particularly for higher earners, are amongst the lowest in Europe.

Exactly.

I think the issue is the degradation of public services. People generally don't mind paying tax if they think that they (or society in general) is getting good public provision in return. The issue is that right now a lot of people are seeing basically nothing for their money - they can't access medical treatment, the schools are closed every few weeks with strikes, the roads are full of potholes, pension age is being extended constantly. Suddenly taxes feel like a very bad deal.

OP, I understand your frustration, but that is what taking part in a society like the UK is. You can move somewhere like Dubai where you pay no taxes at all and get nothing for free.

Oh that's another. MN 'never happens'...remember nobody chooses to have income from benefits rather than work, ever!

@Sissynova
What low tax country do you desire to replicate?
I never said I wanted to replicate low tax countries but that it is misleading to suggest that high taxation is a requirement for 'civilised' societies.

Tax payers have a right to question how much tax they are paying and to have a say in how their money is spent.

I also think it’s degradation of public services.
Taxation isn’t just on us as individuals though, corporations are taxed too.
And I think that public services are degrading because tax revenues have declined massively due to business losses and the economic contractions we have seen from Brexit and the pandemic as well as successive governments cutting corporation taxes. Brexit alone costs us £40bn a year in lost tax revenues- that’s approximately half the entire annual payroll costs of the NHS!

@neverbeenskiing but isn't that just further taxation for those on higher salaries? Having to pay private assessments etc because nhs can't provide them. I've recently had to pay for an assessment for my dc. ££££ after the amount of tax I pay yes I expect to be able to get it done on the nhs.

@Havanananana that's what I expect for the very high taxes I pay. Instead what I get is paying for all the services that o can't even seem to access, and then paying on top of these taxes to get the services I need. The nhs is in such a state now I am facing waiting lists in private healthcare too,
Effectively I am paying a LOT of money for what Europeans get for a far more reasonable amount in taxes (I am currently looking into moving to an eu country)
In addition to that the house and rent prices in most of Europe seem far more reasonable in 'nice' areas than here so again, my salary even with higher taxes goes further. Plus the country I'm looking at supports families far more than here. Even high earners get something back for the taxes they pay.

Yes, people forget that Brexit also means higher taxes.

It was labeled as Project Fear when mentioned but as the government is getting less tax take from smaller GDP growth and companies going bust or relocating their EU operations to the EU it means that the only way for public services not to completely collapse is for us to pay higher taxes.

My companies entire workforce is in the UK but we had to open a small office in Ireland so that we could continue trading easily with Europe, all our corporation tax and VAT is now paid there rather than to HMRC.

Totally agree with undoing the shit the tories have caused.

Get a worse paid job?

ha ha my pay is £2250 take home £1759 so I pay £491 tax

work full time also not entitled to any help/benefits. My partners pay is much the same.

There are many on this thread who have implied there should be financial equality for everyone. That the OP shouldn't complain because she is relatively well off and isn't living in poverty. Well following that argument to its natural conclusion means that OP would only be able to begrudge the tax she was paying if she wasn't better off than others in society.

Nobody is saying there should be no taxation but the question is at what level should this taxation be set at. It's easy to advocate for a high tax economy when you know that you won't be the one picking up the bill and receiving very little in return.

"You're not considering the indirect effects of a happier, less poverty ridden, better looked after and better educated society."

But that doesn't affect me directly so I don't care. I only care about me and mine.

You won't and aren't getting much sympathy here. However I'm on a similar salary to you, but pay student loan (that I was forced to do by my school and then dropped out of but still have to psy the whole lot).

It's really upsetting to see the amount taken off me in tax and NI. I have had a 4% salary increase but see less than £70 a month of it after all the deductions.

Despite what people think, 60 ish k isn't a large salary, especially if living in a city (London for me)