October budget going to be painful

[increasinglyconcerned]

Here we go..... I knew it. Labour were promising not to hike our taxes in the election campaign and here we are.... apparently they discovered £22 billion black hole in his first weeks in the role and it's not his fault.

Let me guess, those of us who earn six figures and already pay 45% will pay EVEN more and take home even less. It's the hard workers who will take the brunt. What's the point in working anymore!

I earn a little over £120k and I'm taxed the same as those earrings £500k.

Before people jump in saying they don't feel sorry for me, I work full time to support my family, as of January I will have 2 DCs in nursery, plus my mortgage and get ZERO free hours childcare, whilst they keep promising free childcare but I just pay more for everyone else to benefit.

I cannot afford to pay more taxes to fix this country and especially when so many people are getting a free ride and not paying their way, ranging from millionaires with tax havens to those claiming benefits dishonestly.

Tax is never just about 'paying for other people'. Even if you never use the NHS, send your children to private school, etc, I'm sure there are very, very few people who never drive their car on a public road (to name one example). And are you going to not call the police or the fire service if you need them? Any private equivalents of those? Thought not. But beyond even that, you are paying, according to your ability, for a peaceful society with generally safe streets/communities and reasonable chances for all. Or do you want to live in a gated community in fear of the masses 'out there' and just one stroke of ill-luck away from joining them? - That is obviously an extreme, somewhat hyperbolic scenario, but the fundamental point stands.

My point is, are we now going to be taxed at 50%? 55%? Where does it end.

No. If you watched or read anything from today's announcement, Starmer confirmed there would be NO INCREASE in income tax. I get that people are frustrated and fearful but it would help if you read enough to be concerned about the right things.

Well if it's those that 'work hard that take the brunt', just work a bit harder to earn more money.

Simples.

Intersted to hear what people think SHOULD be raised (or cut) then. Everyone always wants someone else to pay, so what would people put in place instead, bearing in mind the pledges not to raise Income Tax or NI?

@TeenagersAngst i agree on CGT - again, where are the growth incentives? Oh they only mean public sector driven growth I assume.

Why is the discussion always tax first? What about waste? There are huge levels of it going on. Why not deal with that?

Nail on the head. If anything, the govt should be giving incentives to get people working and get part timers working more, at ALL age groups, etc.

Far too many not working, whether young, disabled, early retirement, etc etc. Far too many working part time when there's no reason they can't work full time.

The tax/benefit system is discouraging people from working or working more, and they need to change that.

Well they should never have pledged not to raise income tax. They should go back on that.

My discussion wasn't tax first which is why I included "or cut" as an option.

I suspect there is huge waste - but it's hard to see where.

One easy thing would be to put the child benefit limit back to where it was at the start of this year.

I get it OP. A lot of responses here sum it up - it's race to the bottom / lowest common denominator thinking. The problem is we don't touch the genuinely rich (or dare i say the self employed who evade tax). It's the people on PAYE who get squeezed time and time again as it's easy pickings.
The problem is, it's very easy to highlight an individual case such as yours and say how lucky you are blah blah but taken at a macro level you start to disincentivise hard work and growth...and therefore take less tax which is worse for everyone.

Youre Very welcome to give it all up and live on benefits if you’re certain you’ll be better off.

But you actually know that’s a complete falsehood, so you won’t.

I earn about half of your salary. I am happy to pay more tax IF it genuinely leads to better public services for all. Better health, education and housing lead to a happier and more self sufficient country which in turn reduces crime and probably will reduce your long term tax burden as more people are bette educated (so can get a job) healthier (so can work) and not in prison (so they can work).

CGT
IHT
Extend NIC to all income sources and gains
Smooth all the tax/benefit cliff edges
Remove the stupidly high marginal tax rates at certain income levels
Tackle tax evasion and benefit fraud in the black economy
So many ways of raising tax revenue without hammering the "working middle"!

Are you public sector?

Or private and ready to work harder to pay the tax burden

The answer lies in better mental health support, and different ways of teaching and supporting children instead of the one size fits all.

Both my children are adults on disability benefits who will probably never work, so I am very grateful for the high earners and their tax contributions.

Nobody enjoys having to pay more tax, but unfortunately it's necessary. Personally I'd like to see the legal loopholes closed so the mega-rich have to actually pay their share, but no party ever seems brave enough to tackle that particular issue.

We don't vote for parties who are honest about the link between higher taxes and a better society and then wonder why everything's so crap.

Imagine if all those Thatcherite tax cuts had been invested in social housing, education and protecting the environment.

@Flixon really interested at your 'better off on benefits' comment. I'm a lone parent of two, full time worker, educated. Previously on 47K. I'm in between jobs due to movie area so I had to claim UC for the first time last month. £955 per month. In what world would this be a lifestyle choice?
In what world would people give up holidays, home ownership, a career, a pension, eating nice food, having a car for... £955 a month?

I personally agree - I don't really understand why we give Child Benefit at all these days - but I also know cuts to CB are deeply unpolular and likely to trigger as many people against it as this thread has against some of the proposals. And probably some really sad stories about it would genuinely make lives much harder for people.

Like I say - everyone always wants someone else to pay (me too! )

Most people unfortunately don't understand the importance of economic growth. They are obsessed with anyone that has more than they feel they deserve and would rather punitively tax these people than encourage rich people to invest in the country and economy to facilitate growth.

Put stalky, we maintain (and probably shrink) the financial pie and squabble about who gets what, or we grow the financial pie and everyone gets more. To achieve growth you need investment and we need to a taxation regime that supports this. Look at how we support the British film industry for example with lucrative tax breaks and how this has encouraged massive films like Barbie to be made here. This created a huge amount of jobs and inward investment that dwarfed any benefit we would have got from making fewer films here but taxing more heavily. We live in a competitive world and countries need to be smart about who and what they tax. CGT taxation generally will hamper growth, especially when it doesn't take account of inflation.

This!

And why did you think they called a snap election sooner than predicted? The my knew they were going to be found out!

Have Labour said that they will increase income tax? I don't think they will. I'm hoping that there will be wealth taxes instead. There's too much inter generational inequality.

and I genuinely think that’s ok …it’s a big salary …..what maths don’t I understand? If you earn a big salary then you should pay more tax🤷‍♀️

Rents are extortionate and I feel so sorry for younger people who cannot get on the housing ladder. Round where I live it is nearly all BRL and the average cost is about £1k a month, that is a hell of a chunk out of an average salary, then add on all the other things that people have to pay for and I think it is fair to say that most people are having a fairly wretched time. Just out of interest what sort of jobs to people do to earn £120k, I am sometimes astonished at some of the salaries mentioned on here. I have never even vaguely known someone on that sort of money, let alone what they might be doing to earn it.

Exactly it's so not joined up thinking. It will kill start ups and even if people want to tax everything that moves we rely on new businesses and investment to keep things growing and more jobs

Nuts to put the brakes on that.

And it ignores risk entirely as you say