AIBU Income Tax rise.

[H202too]

To be panicking about income tax rise.

Things are tight and to loae even £30-60 a month will be difficult.

I know people are talking about the mansion tax being a no go. But I would prefer this than taxing the workers as per usual.
The tax free rate should be put up. What a mess.

So what would you rather. No tax rises and we continue down a deep hole of debt with nothing improving, nobody wanting to acknowledge the shitshow that is Brexit or actually trying to fix the country which was decimated by 14 years of the Tories?

I feel the same, I'm not sure how we can take another hit. Things are SO tight now, bills, mortgage, the food shop. And now something else to worry about

We were also told energy bills would freeze and not go up...another lie.

Thank you. I was going to say i dont get this measure. If I pay less NI and more income tax I cant see that it raises anything. I forgot lots of people dont pay NI.

I think this gets round the promise not to tax working people they made.

The big issue is people are going to pay more, but nothing will get better because I assume it will just reduce our borrowing.

If you are paying a lot of tax already you must be earning a lot of money, so can afford to pay more tax.

Increasing the higher rate and leaving the basic rate alone would be fairer.

Good luck with that - very expensive housing and very expensive health costs. The grass isn’t always greener.

Part of the issue the UK has is actually that most workers aren’t paying anywhere near enough tax. The tax free allowance plus the 20% rate mean a fairly low rate for those earning average wages and below.

Everyone needs to pay a little more - you can’t just keep targeting the same small group of people, whose tax burden has already grown massively over the past decade. And - just endlessly targeting the top 5-10% of earners doesn’t actually raise much - as there isn’t as many of them!

I like the idea of reducing NI but increasing tax - it’s absurd pensioners pay a far lower rate, when on average they are better off than workers…!

@H202too

A “mansion tax” is estimated to raise £2-3bn per year. A 1p increase in the basic rate of income tax would raise over £8bn per year, and would cost a taxpayer about £1 per day. A 1p rise in VAT would raise around £9bn.

Hitting the top few % of people never raises enough. They are also often the ones with more options and can easily leave the country. Many already are doing as they’ve simply had enough. The answer to raising any meaningful amount of tax is to tax more people.

Too many people want improved services but only if someone else pays. It’s not sustainable.

Think what you like about Rachel Reeves but her tax raiding stance is loved by the bond markets which drops the interest rate on gilts (government borrowing) which saves the country billions and billions.

Once again my FIL is in a massive tizz about inheritance tax. He's obsessed with reducing the bill, even though he'll be dead so it doesn't impact him. He splits his time between two houses. Before the last budget he transferred ownership of one to DH and BIL and now rents it from them. I think there's talk of pensions being subject to IHT changes? Well this time he has cashed in a huge chunk of his pension and gifted it to DH and BIL. He's healthy and we wouldn't expect him to die in the next 10 years. He's trying to give away as much as he can now. He needs to chill out.

What would you increase the higher rate from, to?

Noting an adult with a student loan currently pays 51% on anything earned over the higher rate threshold.

Things should definitely be fairer, a pensioner with a gold plated DB pension should be paying NI.
If public services weren’t such enormous wastrels, with money going into contractors pockets, I’d have no problem with a bit more tax.
But with companies like Serco raking it in for shit services, absolutely not.

I would prefer people listened pre GE. Too late now. Looks like anti growth tax cycle is kicking in. Tax hikes followed by hammering growth and more taxes every year.

So what would you suggest?

Because I think it’s possible for people to hold two things in their head at once
a) whatever their opinion on tax rises are, plus
b) Reeves is an idiot, and if taxes do rise, the fact she’s breaking a promise that shouldn’t have been made doesn’t make it less of a broken promise or her any more competent.

i don’t get that argument - if you are paying lots of tax you can afford to pay more tax. What is the point of working the extra hours to earn that extra money and putting into extra effort to get promoted etc if it just gets taken away. It acts as such a distinctive to be more productive. I work 4 days a week at the moment. I could work the extra day but honestly it isn’t worth my while.

is fair that someone who is on £100k a year could end up with the same take home pay as someone on £60k for instance when you take into account all the extra taxes that are levied.

I think we need to get rid of NI. Everyone should pay tax on their income regardless of whether it’s earned or unearned

I wish we were cutting the welfare bill, removing the triple lock and dealing with the irregular immigration system before raising taxes.

The tax increase won't improve public services though.

It's annoying that it's always on workers.

They need to pause the triple lock for one. prove we are all in this together.

I'm in Spain, where lower and middle-income earners pay more tax than in the UK and the personal allowance is lower so only the first €4,500 is tax-free. This means I pay more tax here than in the UK, but the services are better.

I'm like a broken record. The problem here is housing costs.

I agree with this

Increasing the higher rate and leaving the basic rate alone would be fairer.

Don't forget the frozen bands which have pulled far more people into higher bands.

If people have less money they can’t pay more and housing costs will drop. Housing costs are ultimately driven by what people can afford. That’s the medium to long term though. In the short term there will be hard times.

Increasing the higher rate and leaving the basic rate alone would be fairer.

Increasing the basic rate by 1p would raise about £8bn per year. Increasing the higher rate by 1p would raise £2bn. Where would you get the £6bn difference from? Increasing the tax for a very small percentage of the country never raises enough. The answer is that a larger proportion of the population needs to pay more tax.

I like the idea of reducing NI but increasing tax - it’s absurd pensioners pay a far lower rate, when on average they are better off than workers…!

yep

1p increase in the basic rate of income tax would raise over £8bn per year, and would cost a taxpayer about £1 per day. A 1p rise in VAT would raise around £9bn.

Isn't the triple lock going to cost 12bn a year?