To ask what you'll be doing to avoid the Labour tax hikes

[OptimismvsRealism]

Pension contributions
Gift aid
Selling my shares now while CGT is relatively low

What really worries me is that all the professionals we actually need to want to be here will just fuck off elsewhere, though.

It's not like we're knee deep in hospital doctors.

Are there any plans to close the tax avoidance loopholes because that's what I'd do if I was the Chancellor. Too many businesses avoid paying full tax by employing clever accountants to find loopholes.

I am not planning on changing my spending or limited saving.

Unlike some on this thread, I took what the IFS said as likely to happen. The intentional hiding of things by the previous government was to be expected.

I hope so.

Absolutely I do! She needs to use her money to help her live comfortably, and stop trying to shaft the tax man at every opportunity.

She’s one of life’s takers- and let’s her broke grandchildren pay her way when they are out, give her presents etc, despite her own fortunate circumstances.

You can feel sorry for her if you like, and criticise my attitude, but not every pensioner is a salt of the earth diamond. Some are just tight and actually quite unpleasant.

Yes IHT is very easy to avoid.

I think, given the hysterics on this thread, the best option for most folks is to convert all their assets to gold coins. Put them in a big fuck off urn. Bury it near their property and the piss off to the hills to evade the hordes.

They can then return when its safe.

If not, at least archaeologists of the future will have something to talk about.

Quite apart from the assumption that we'll all be trying to avoid paying our share, I find the characterisation of these as "Labour tax hikes" annoying. Whatever tax hikes are coming are in large part a consequence of policies enacted by the previous government. It was well known prior to the election that there were no costed plans for running the government sustainably beyond the short term. Whoever won would have had to take hard decisions, and yet the approach taken was to make matters worse with pre-election National Insurance cuts rather than make responsible choices.

Now the Labour government will be forced to do what the previous lot failed to, and their opponents will score easy points by pointing out the tax hikes and the lack of proportional service improvements associated with them. Well, yes. That's because a chunk of the tax hikes will be eaten up by filling holes in the balance sheet, not improvements at all.

I don't think there would be that many people affected by IHT with dependent children (unless in the South East or we're talking dependent adult children).

But squirrelling it away 'like a selfish twat' is what you're expected to do to fund your own retirement.

That is the unfair part of Inheritance tax, is that it does affect those in the South East more. You skimp and save for a ridiculous mortgage, and then the tax man takes it when you die.

However, I do appreciate that the answer is to move up North but its hard when your relatives and friends are all down here too.

We aren't planning on doing anything, nor do we have plans to leave the country. We have lives and family here. On the other thread (similar topic) poster were talking about dubai. You couldn't pay me enough to live there, everything about it is grim.

Given the alternative was to watch the country fall apart whilst Tory donors and billionaires became ever richer I think I will cope. Obviously I could have voted Reform and watched racism become government policy whilst pretending we were living in 1950

Presumably the OP was cheering when it was Tory tax hikes. Its just labour ones she hates

I don't know there's much anyone can do to avoid it.

I pay 45% tax. No allowances. I put as much as possible into a pension, but could only start doing that in the last couple years, so the pot isn't very big. I'm 49 now and was planning to to prioritize pension contributions in the next few years.

I will be upset to pay more tax. I already notionally work until May each year 'for free'. Isn't that enough?

I do a professional job and have a normal, if comfortable lifestyle. No yachts/second homes/celebrity lifestyle. I'm not part of the '1%' and don't have unearned income, but these threads always suggest employees at my level should pay more.

If employment taxes increase much more or pension relief is capped in some way I will naturally think about working less. I imagine many earners in that bracket will do the same. I could also work abroad and have done before, but I'd have to balance that against needing to be here for aging parents etc.

It's the constant changing of pension ages/thresholds that bum me out the most; it makes planning for retirement so difficult.

Completely agree. What's not nice about it (and what does it have to do with the Netherlands)?

I assume you mean evasion not avoidance.

What specifically do you want HMRC to do? As much as it might irk you evasion by large companies is 11% if all evasion.

The majority of tax evasion (44%) is small business not declaring their income. Builder does work for cash, the money doesn’t go through his bank account, he doesn’t declare it to HMRC so no income tax on it nor VAT registration. Restaurant taking cash, not putting it through the till, etc etc. The easiest way for you to prevent evasion is by refusing to pay cash for anything apart from the likes of the school fair.

Evasion by individuals is 9%, mid sized companies 11% and criminals 15%. It’s the cash economy that is driving tax evasion.

Total tax evasion = 39.8bn in 2023/24

I hope you are right.
NIC seems fair.
Money has to come from somewhere......

Exactly - but then 'twas ever thus

See also the thread about folk potentially being charged by miles driven, where the main thrust of the comments - some by the same posters insisting on here that they'd be "happy to pay more tax" - veers between horror and an insistence it'll never happen

Well you have been busy this week, OP. Multiple threads Labour bashing, public service bashing..... Maybe get a hobby, you may cheer up.

Yes that’s right OP. Those of us that are supportive of a fairer society are living on unearned capital 😂😂😂

Or they will stay and put everything in trust.

They do that anyway. If you are rich and financially savvy, you already have that in place. If you are rich and believe in public service, you will pay your part. I foresee no change in that.

I have high confidence that the tax payer's money is in better hands. Very high confidence. I cannot and will not ever, EVER forgive the humiliating and heartbreaking farce that the Tories, since David Cameron's departure, have made of the UK government. From covid 19 parties, Dominic Cummings, the Elphickle sexual assaults, Tory donors refurbishing Downing Street, Matt Hancock conducting an affair in public office, Griffiths's rape conviction, Imran Kahn's sexual assault of a minor, Neil Parish watching pornography in the House of Commons, to everything else (and there's a LOT of it) that I've missed out in-between. And where to begin in the in-between? Betting scandals, expenses scandals, Chris Pincher, more sexual assault convictions, breaches of lobbying rules and cocaine use.

God forbid anyone on this thread should be sneered at or questioned for having an ounce of positivity after having to ensure all the above and more from the individuals who are meant to govern us. It's beyond disgusting.

As someone who looked into following a medic allied professional to USA/Canada there's a few issues unless you're both medic/university based.

1. Annual leave - unless in the field DH is in there is 2 weeks so you can either have an actual holiday or come back to the UK to see family... (Applies to both USA and CAN).

1. Insurance costs

1. Risk of shootings at educational establishments.

Also looked as AUS and you have the joy of climate and fauna wanting to kill you...

Leaving NZ which isn't very big and is VERY far away... Too far for much relationship with aging parents who struggle to fly as it's over a day of travel in most situations.

So we stayed put in the UK.

Employer NICs rises add to the cost of employing people so incentivises companies to make redundancies.

It's a no-win situation isn't it?
We will be paying more monies, just which aspect and how much.

Then assess the impact, short term and long term.

I won’t be doing anything. I, and the 9.8million others that voted for this government knew what we were doing.

Incidently, my husband is one of those high-earning doctors that you seem to think will be hopping on a plane. He, I, his colleagues and our friends are all staying put. So is my friend who’s a barrister, and my mate who runs a hedge fund.

It’s not all about clawing back what you can - that attitude tells us more about you than I suspect you realise and is what got us into this mess in the first place.