To Stop Generating Taxable Income?

[GabrielsOboe]

Quite simply, I am done with being taxed to
death, whilst getting little or nothing in return from
the state.

I don't mind being taxed, in fact I think we should be taxed higher like Finland and Norway, so long as there was a commensurate improvement in services and social safety nets that those countries also enjoy.

We have created loads of silly, unjustifiable tax rates.

• Student loans mean a 51% rate above £50k
• Removal of child benefit means rates of 60-80% between £60-80k if you have a student loan
• Removal of personal allowance means a rate of 62% between £100-125k
• Removal of childcare subsidies creates a LOSS now, one child plus loss of 30 hours and you’re at about a 100% rate between £100-125k

And then if you want to do something like buy a house, massive tax burden again.

I am actively not now trying to move house as I can to spend tens of thousands of pounds (maybe even six figures) again AGAIN for the privilege of doing so - all on income taxed at the above silly rates.

The £100k rate was introduced in 2009 - and it’s frozen until 2028. 19 years for gods sake, it didn’t make any sense then, how can it still exist let alone at the same level…!

Little or nothing from the state? You're having a laugh.

Taxes are what we pay to live in a civilised society.

Even if you don't receive support directly, your clients, customers, suppliers, and staff have all benefited from state support.

93% of people are state educated, would you want to live in a society without this? Would your business survive without an educated populous?

Taxes pay for the military, courts, policing, all of which help you stay safe.

They pay for the regulations and enforcement that ensures that the things you buy are safe and fit for purpose.

Little or nothing? You couldn't be more wrong.

We have low salaries, shit services and high taxes. What's not to like? 🤔

Congrats on your retirement, OP!

Even if someone doesn't pay income tax because they live on savings, they're still very likely to be paying quite a lot of tax to HMRC every year.

I pay £3k council tax pa. 20% VAT on practically everything I spend. Extra VAT on petrol and alcohol. Road tax for the car. TV licence. Tax on insurance policies. Stamp duty if you buy a house or shares. Dividend tax. Capital gains tax...

It's very difficult to live in this country and not be making some kind of contribution by way of taxes.

Plus pension is taxable of course.

Tbh we should be encouraging people able to retire to do so if they're self financing which sounds like OP is. Someone else will take that job and pay the income tax and OP will be spending her savings (and paying VAT) which is good for the economy.

Go for it. You could just earn under the 1st band or spend what you’ve saved. You do you.

You’re basically talking about about retirement, i’m Planning on the same soon. Out of interest, will you be using the NHS or still keeping private healthcare?

If you can afford to why not? I'll be paying nearly half my salary for twenty years (at least) yet.

In an interesting webinar re possible budget changes and one mentioned was reducing employee NICs by 2% and increasing the basic rate of income tax by 2% instead. It’s an interesting thing to do as it increases pensioners and landlord’s income tax rates while leaving working people untouched.

n an interesting webinar re possible budget changes and one mentioned was reducing employee NICs by 2% and increasing the basic rate of income tax by 2% instead. It’s an interesting thing to do as it increases pensioners and landlord’s income tax rates while leaving working people untouched.

Not a bad idea but the pensioners will revolt

That is a very sweeping statement. I am not of state pension age, but I do have an occupational pension as well as a part time job. I would be happy to pay an extra 2% tax on both pension and salary.

People often change behaviour due to tax. Go too high and people will opt out. Good luck op, enjoy retirement.

@Mantari did you miss the outcry over means testing winter fuel?

No. But I think you'll find plenty of pensioners thought it was a reasonable policy, but that the original threshold was too low and the subsequent threshold too high.

Why this?

So why did the government do a U turn and make it so high?
The triple lock should be paused but again no gov will touch that. Imo there would be outrage over reducing employers NICs and increasing income tax. You can disagree of course.

Let's see if it happens. Lots of rumours at the moment.

You should try moving to a true low tax country.

Rural Senegal is good.
No taxes at all
(no services either but Hey !)

I am a pensioner and I would agree with this. RR needs to raise more money and it should not all come from the working population.

Tax in UK is simply too high. It means there is no incentive to work hard and get a high salary because of rate of tax you have to pay or for that matter save any capital as half the interest earned will soon go to the state in tax. So if you took a bond at 4% interest on any half decent amount you would end up paying half of that in tax. So you take all the risk tying up your money in bonds but the state takes half the benefit, so why bother?

Why not make a voluntary payment then?

The government has a website with a link for people to make voluntary additional tax payments. Considering how many people claim they’d be happy to pay more, the reality is that almost nobody does so unless mandated by law.

@Flossflower that's great but we need the majority to want it.