Higher taxes incoming on Tueaday

[Choosychoice]

If you earn £100-£125k you currently pay income tax at a marginal rate of 63%. This isn’t enough for the SNP who next Tuesday are increasing it to 65%. 🤯 in what world is this a reasonable thing to do, when money is being wasted left right and centre by these imbeciles on embassies with no political purpose, ferry contracts so bad we pay 10 x the going rate, and a department for constitutional affairs who’s whole purpose is outwith the devolution agreement. We’ve just spent millions trying to get the GRR past section 35 when the case was so weak it took 46 seconds for the judge to throw it out and rUK are (quite rightly) considering asking for the Scottish government to pay their costs.

I don’t mind paying more taxes for the child poverty measures, but raising taxes to allow these fiscally incontinent 5 year olds to waste again and again and again is farcical.

For many high skilled jobs it is a case of London or Edinburgh.

If anyone thinks for a second that Newcastle will provide them with a better quality of life than Scottish cities then I’d hazard a guess they probably aren’t that vital to our economy in the first place.

The Lake District may give you the same lifestyle as Perthshire but you’ll pay a lot more for it if you want to buy there.

If you want to go then go though, don’t let anyone stop you, uproot your family, leave your friends as a tiny bit extra tax is clearly more important.

Why what would happen to me?

Disagree all you want.

Ireland has a housing crisis, most people living with their parents into their 30’s, astronomical prices and unmanageable rents.

Home ownership is out of reach of most young people.

Do you not keep up to date with what’s happening in Ireland anymore?

There’s a million things you could do to make it more attractive.

Tax is only one of them.

Thinking of my colleagues I'd say most of the more senior people are already commuting; very few of them are in the city anyway, lots in East Lothian etc. For them the impact of moving over the border really isn't that significant. It would maybe add half an hour to our commute. It's not like emigrating to another country and being hours away from family. It's not always easy to move in the very short term but plenty are rethinking their long term plans as at a household level the financial impacts are becoming too high for them to swallow.

I grew up very poor - single parent who didn't work for my entire childhood. I fully believe in supporting kids from poorer backgrounds to go to university. But the way it is being done is absolutely nuts. The vitriol being spewed here against parents who want their children to have a fair chance at getting to a local university is ridiculous. The fact that there are years when you would not get a place on certain courses unless you were in a SIMD 1 or 2 area isn't a good thing.

We should be offering much greater financial support to the poorest children so that when they do go to university they're on a more equal footing with their peers and able to get the best qualification possible. The current approach gets them in the door, but the financial support for living costs is not adequate so many end up (like I did) trying to juggle a high number of working hours which ultimately impacts their attainment and causes them to drop out or do poorly. I'd far rather see focused support. The fact you universities are offering places preferentially to english students (because of funding) and that Scottish students cannot pay for the places even if they want to is absurd.

Completely untrue there are a lot of high skilled jobs in Manchester (including banking) Birmingham, Durham etc your also completely ignoring the North East of Scotland which has very highly skilled workforce.
One good thing about covid is that hybrid and office location doesn't matter for a vast number of jobs now.

As for the uproot your life well not really already had friends make the move to Northumberland we will just be joining them! We already started house hunting when it looked on the 2nd referendum.

House prices are cheaper in Northumberland then North east Scotland and we can afford a bigger place as the stamp duty/land tax is less already know the areas with good schools as friends have moved already!

I’m not going anywhere. We’re just putting everything we earn over £75K into pensions. Haven’t bothered to do this before but these rates are taking the Mickey. The SNP has got too greedy this time as I think they’ll soon find out. They’ll certainly take a lot less from us than they have in previous years.

Our pensions are also going to be amazing at this rate. And Scotland is not where we'll be spending them, when the time comes.

The fact that there are years when you would not get a place on certain courses unless you were in a SIMD 1 or 2 area isn't a good thing.

Exactly this. It's not that "Fraser and Sophie" from Boroughmuir aren't impressive enough. It's that they could have the best grades in the world, and the most impressive CV and experience and will not get an offer purely because of their postcode.

The wilful disingenuousness of the cybernats in this thread when doing the “hear no evil see no evil” bit is so so typical 😂

@CoatOfArms and apparenly parents should embrace this with great joy, as evidence of the wonderful progressive utopia they reside in.

Instead of overpaying your mortgage now from taxed income you can put it in a pension tax free then use the tax free lump sum to pay the mortgage off in the future.

@Scottishskifun I agree with many of your points, and especially the one about apprenticeships. Not all people are suited for academic study (some of mine may choose to apprenticeship route, who knows). Also with supermarkets, that's a fair point about it being fairly well paid too compared to caring roles.

Yes it is thinking @EasternStandard selfishly a bit, but aren't we all doing that then really? That's why we all think our point of view is the right one. But of course it all depends on your own unique circumstances.

What courses can you not get in to unless you’re in SIMD1 or 2?

Law at Edinburgh for starters

https://www.scottishlegal.com/articles/edinburgh-law-school-rejects-straight-a-students

You could have had the Nobel Peace Prize that year and your application would have been immediately binned if you were guilty of coming from a middle class Scottish postcode. But, yeh, progressive!

Yep. Same here. Fuck em.

Same as yourself, I don't know what the answer is either from the Scottish Government.. But the poor being disadvantaged even more certainly isn't going to help🤷🏻

I agree to a point that specifically the tax thing might not mean people decide to move, but for others its the final nail in the coffin. I'm seriously considering it despite not being specifically affected as I can be anywhere. I have office options in various places in England. A lot of my socialising is on line or meeting up occasionally which I can still do from anywhere.

I don't have a situation where my family and friends are popping in and out on a daily basis, eldest isn't tied and would move with me. Younger is living away anyway with no intention on permanently moving home.

It's the day on day living with the utter gobshite of the snp and followers that ruins Scotland for me. Others feel differently.

It's not even middle class postcodes either, it excludes entire towns. Take a wander on the SIMD map through Fife and the Lothians; Bonnyrigg, Penicuik, Cockenzie, Haddington, Dunbar, North Berwick, Queensferry, Kirkliston, Newbridge, Ratho, Kirknewton, Rosyth... when it comes to less densely populated places it's a very blunt tool.

The wealthiest will be fine; they can afford to fund their child living in England for 3 years so they can take up a place there. Tuition fees won't bother them either.

It's the kids in the middle who will be screwed; the ones who were relying on being able to live at home in order to afford to go to university. Let's say you've got two parents both earning minimum wage, but you live in a council flat in Clermiston so you're SIMD 5 - you probably won't get a place at Edinburgh Uni for many of the popular courses even if you have straight As. So you have the choice of going to a poorer uni with a potential long term impact on your job prospects, or taking up a place in a good English uni which you've probably been offered with your straight As. Except with those two minimum wage parents you are only entitled to student loans of 6k, which won't cover halls in most places. So you probably can't actually take the place.

Anyone in the uk can go to university? Just to clarify, some high earner in Chelsea, or Birmingham, or perhaps Cardiff is also- very generously, without questioning where their taxes are spent- contributing to helping others in Scotland, thanks to the Barnett Formula.

Aha. There it is. You have choices. Choices to pay more into your pension. Choices to move to England. People who are from deprived backgrounds don't have these choices.

And if the SNP keep squeezing the relatively small population of high earners then they will make those choices. They acknowledge that themselves - their figures show a huge reduction in the potential tax take from these increases due to behavioural factors, and that analysis doesn't look like it has fully considered the ease of movement in the UK. So they could end up achieving a net reduction. They've got this wrong before.

It's easy to say "oh they have choices so they're lucky" but the impact will be an overall reduction in tax revenues. Squeezing people until they make choices which are to the overall detriment of the country isn't the best plan ever.

But if you’re relying on taxpayers to pay four x university fees for your dc what they do will impact you too.

Best outcome is people pay more and accept less back without noticing too much. Tip that too far and everyone gets less.

But fairness is about trying to equalise opportunity. Not taking it from one group to give to another.

In terms of loans, DC from lower incomes get some extra money free and are able to borrow a little more.

DC from modest income families can't borrow enough to cover their rent and their family might not have disposable income to be able to help for many reasons. The system takes no account if they will live at home or away, whether there are siblings also needing support etc.

These are the same families pulled into the 42% tax rate, not folk sitting with family inheritences and middle class connections and 2nd homes.

Their DC options are reduced as they might not be able to afford to leave home or travel far. So working hard to get 5As to get into Edinburgh as that's the nearest uni is a waste of time.