AIBU to ask what amount of tax you would pay if you earned £30k and what amount of tax you would pay if you earned £60k?

[ssd]

have just read here as poster saying a person on £60k would pay more tax than couple who both earned £30k each

is that true?

Impossible to say without more information

don't have any info, just I don't see how one person earning £60k would pay more tax on 2 earning £30k each

anyway what other info do you mean, I just mean earnings alone, not pensions or cars or anything else

thanks stranded

And if this is about the whole CB issue, then it's not a good comparison to make, because you're comparing tax paid by one person with tax paid by two. We are all individuals. I don't pay my husbands tax for him! I find it really weird when some women talk about their husbands tax as if it's being taken out of their own wages.

Each half of the couple would have their tax free allowance of £7k ish whereas the single person would only have one tax free allowance, so yes they would pay more in tax

back again!!

can't see the actual tax paid though....?

One person on £60k would pay more I would have thought as they would only benefit from one persons tax allowance and would be on a higher rate of tax after £40k(?), whereas 2 people on £30k would each get a tax allowance and be on lower tax rate

ah hadn't thought of that olympic

Someone earning £60k would pay £18,590 in tax.

Someone earning £30k would pay £7,238 in tax.

www.incometaxcalculator.org.uk/

£30K - with all deductions, take home £22,888 - tax & NI is £7112
£60K - same ing#formation, take home £41.556.75 - tax is £18443.25

The calculator only asked your age and whether you had a student loan. I ansered yes and no respectively!

Therefore the tax burden on a couple on £30 K each is just over £14K, therefore the two people pay less tax, to the tune of 4K than the single person on £60K

no its not about the cb issue, its about tax paid, but as someone on £26k as a family of 4, I must admit thinking £42 would be total luxury, but after reading a few threads on here I now see that personnel allowances, tax paid and child tax credits received make some salaries more equal than others, its not as straight forward as I first thought

It's because 2 people get 2 personal allowances whereas 1 only gets 1. It's another reason for the relative poverty of single mothers.

yes I can see that!

This is related to my old my defence for CHB for HRT payers actually. Having the same personal tax allowance for someone who's single and child free as someone who's supporting a family of 4/5 has always seemed pretty inequitable to me.

The couple would work out about £5k a year better off (based on 2012-13 tax rates):
Couple
Gross salary: 30,000
PAYE: (4,379)
NICs: (2,733)
Net salary: 22,888
Time two, so household income would be £45,776

Plus, if this is about the CB thing, they would also get full CB.

Single
Gross salary: 60,000
PAYE: (13,884)
NICs: (5,304)
Net salary 40,812

And they would get no CB

It's because the couple would get c£16k of their income tax free cos of their personal allowances, where the single person would only get £8k, same with national insurance - couple would get £14k free of NICs and the single person would get £7k

"some salaries more equal than others"

YY - completely agree. I have commented before on threads, that one thing which bothers me a lot is that many govt policies over recent years may act as a disincentive for people to gain promotions. What matters to people is how much money is left in their pocket after all their bills are paid, not their gross salary. It is quite astonishing to see comparatively how little is left from a seemingly good salary, once all the deductions are made, and all the bills paid out of that salary, which is the case for people who don't receive any tax credits or susbidised childcare etc

If I were younger, I would think seriously about whether I wanted the relative stress and responsibility of a higher status job, because I think fewer and fewer people are rewarded for it nowadays

yes, I can now understand a bit more about the squeezed middle, to me they seemed privileged at first

is there anyone here who could work out how close a salary of say £30k would be to a salary of £60K? taking into account tax credits, allowances etc?

sorry, say for someone with 2 kids, hypothetically

its just that I'm beginning to see how close 2 salaries can be, when on paper they look miles apart

I know, but surely someone on 30k gets tax credits and CB which would add up?

SSD - You would have childcare to pay if there was 2 of you though so you would be a lot worse off