Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Scotsnet

Welcome to Scotsnet - discuss all aspects of life in Scotland, including relocating, schools and local areas.

Original poster

Higher taxes incoming on Tueaday

338 replies

Choosychoice · 14/12/2023 18:46

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.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
15
apples24 · 19/12/2023 19:14

I'm affected by the new 45% rate. I salary sacrifice to pension a huge whack, was already doing so to keep child benefit, so it that sense nothing changed for me. Pension pot at least is starting to look very healthy - always a silver lining lol

Husband works for the NHS, his colleagues were pissed off today - apparently topic got chatted over during Christmas lunch. Those who don't already work part time considering it now.

Surely a big chunk of SNP voters are not even close to being impacted though and happily buy the "rich to pay more" rhetoric...

EasternStandard · 19/12/2023 19:17

The heavier the weighting to lower earnings the higher likelihood of SNP (or Labour in Wales) votes

Push out higher earners, stay in power but the budgets will really suffer. And the cycle continues to ramp up

Happyhippos21 · 19/12/2023 19:19

apples24 · 19/12/2023 16:51

Does anyone know what makes up the huge volume of adults who don't pay any income tax? Must include students, assume pensioners too?

Im interested in this too. The working age population is defined as those aged 15 to 64. Obviously at either end of the scale there will be a chunk of non tax payers due to not working or working part time during education or retirement but it seems staggering 43% of the county pay nothing.

hilbil21 · 19/12/2023 19:24

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-67760641.amp

This article is good. We're not impacted just now really, but if my husband gets promoted we will be! Absolute joke.

Coolblur · 19/12/2023 19:45

It's an absolute joke. Whoever voted yes to tax raising powers during the devolution vote all those years ago should be ashamed of themselves.
This may be a popular vote winner among those not in the affected tax brackets. But those who will lose an even larger chunk of money every month will look to make savings elsewhere, which will in turn affect lower earners and local businesses. For example, alongside cutting takeaways or eating out, I'm considering which of my child's extra curricular classes we could cut that wouldn't be missed. May seem a bit 'first world problems', but if everyone does the same those businesses will suffer and maybe even disappear altogether.
We're a single income household as DH is too unwell to work. It's just good fortune that I can support us all...for now.

RJnomore1 · 19/12/2023 19:50

I’m affected. Salary sacrifice BMW and increased pensions contributions it is then.

Ineedaholiday23 · 19/12/2023 20:04

Yip. Salary sacrifice Jag myself.

pbdr · 19/12/2023 20:16

It's disappointing. As a GP partner in Scotland I work part time. I would like to work more, but between my highest marginal tax rate (which would be the new 45% marginal rate), 2% national insurance, and employers and employees pension contributions (as GP partners are self employed we pay for both, totalling about 27% of pay) I would take home around 26% of what I earn for any additional work, which wouldn't even cover the cost of childcare.

MissBuffyAnneSummers · 19/12/2023 20:19

I will now pay more than £3k more in tax for living in Scotland in comparison to English colleagues.

Happyhippos21 · 19/12/2023 20:33

I dont no why the lower tax thresholds dont seem to get much news coverage. Its been the case for a while but i really dont think people realise that in england you dont even pay 'higher rate' tax until over 50k compared to 42k in scotland. Its outrageous. Work hard at school, be ambitious and climb your career ladder so the Scot Gov shit show can pay for the 43% who cant be bothered. A simplistic view of course.

Pootle40 · 19/12/2023 20:40

Happyhippos21 · 15/12/2023 15:56

This is ridiculous. We already have higher tax rates and lower tax bands in Scotland. I totally agree with the brain drain concerns. My DH is in the 75 to 100k band so not as badly affected as you op, but its still pretty gawling, if i lived an hour down the road maybe I could afford my kids an extra gymnastics class or something. I work in a small office in Edinburgh, three people have moved to berwick upon tweed and commute in to Edinburgh once a week by train for lower taxes. I earn less but still over the 42k threshold so i pay way more into my pension than i otherwise would. Its absolutely sickening. You consider countries such as Norway where high tax equals good education and health etc. We have high tax and none of the above. The Scottish government are a total shambles. The people voting SNP need to realise that this is their doing!

And we pay more stamp duty too

NAndJSaysVoteConservative · 19/12/2023 20:41

Happyhippos21 · 19/12/2023 20:33

I dont no why the lower tax thresholds dont seem to get much news coverage. Its been the case for a while but i really dont think people realise that in england you dont even pay 'higher rate' tax until over 50k compared to 42k in scotland. Its outrageous. Work hard at school, be ambitious and climb your career ladder so the Scot Gov shit show can pay for the 43% who cant be bothered. A simplistic view of course.

This is the crux of why socialism doesn't work - you can't expect the hard workers to be au fait with subsidising the lazy and feckless.

Dissimilitude · 19/12/2023 20:44

The estimates for “behavioural change” clawing back most of the new tax rate are hilarious. The 48% rate is estimated to raise…wait for it…£8m due to people adapting their finances to mitigate. Pure pantomime.

Altogether the new bands might raise 70-80m. The rest of it is fiscal drag ie dragging the lower paid into higher bands because you refuse to raise thresholds in line with inflation. How “progressive”.

Absolute charlatans.

StillCreatingAName · 19/12/2023 20:54

DH is senior NHS, we left Scotland for another career opportunity in England and never went back. His own family have done nothing but criticise our move ‘down south’ saying we’ll regret leaving all the ‘free’ services and denying our dc the chance of a ‘free’ university education etc, etc. It’s the economics of it all you have to laugh (or you’d cry) at and the apparent lack of understanding as to why it is ‘free’.
Perhaps the penny will finally drop?

Dissimilitude · 19/12/2023 20:59

Free university has been a disaster for native Scots, who are now seen as revenue-unattractive for our top universities who can earn more on foreign students.

See recent scandal (in the Times, I think) re: not a single non-deprived Scottish admission for Edinburgh law intake. The only Scottish kids getting in are the ones who meet deprivation criteria.

Scotland in 2023 is a parody of a country.

BYDboard · 19/12/2023 21:12

Student funding even leaving aside foreign students isn’t equivalent either (from IFS):

The majority of funding is provided through the ‘main teaching grant’, which was worth around £5,790 per student in 2023–24. Universities also charge Scottish students a notional ‘tuition fee’, which is paid by the Scottish Government on their behalf. This has been frozen in cash terms at £1,820 per year since 2009–10.
Together, this means Scottish universities received direct public funding of £7,610 for each Scottish student this academic year. This is around 19% less in real terms than in 2013–14, as a result of the freeze in the ‘tuition fee’ and below-inflation rises in per-student teaching grants.

This is also around £2,020 (21%) lower than the resources available for an English university teaching an England-domiciled undergraduate in 2023–24

Original poster
Choosychoice · 19/12/2023 21:20

NAndJSaysVoteConservative · 19/12/2023 18:28

For those of us in England - this is what'll happen if Labour get in!

I really don’t think this is the case. Rachel Reeves is an experienced professional. She knows what she’s doing. The SNP have all the intelligence of a lettuce.

OP posts:
Tomorrowisanewday · 19/12/2023 22:19

I've been self employed for more than 20 years, lived through the "losing ALL personal allowances because my hard work and 80 hour weeks meant I earned above 150k" and never considered leaving the country because I hoped that my taxes would pay for the health care my parents now need, and the education my nephews deserved. Neither of those have been provided. I'm 100% working class, first person in my generation to get a degree, and I'm now seriously considering whether I should move south

CoatOfArms · 19/12/2023 22:31

So the person who is making the decisions about tax and finances is Shona Robison, a former social worker. Says it all.

speedtalker · 19/12/2023 22:32

My experience of people who will meet this higher bracket (in medicine, finance, tech) is that they are mostly a mix of nationalities, therefore their Scottish ties are weaker. Most I know have kids settled in schools, but those with older children who have finished school, there’s not the family history to hold them here and this is a good incentive to look elsewhere.

CoatOfArms · 19/12/2023 22:32

How much extra money could we make from scrapping the Scottish parliament, selling the building off for flats and sacking all the MSPs?

MuchasSmoochas · 19/12/2023 22:33

I wonder about this too. Unemployment rate slightly under 4%. I suspect many people are working lower hours but you get 30 hours a week nursery funding?

Fedupwithtax · 19/12/2023 23:02

Calculation for my household rough est is ~ 10k extra vs what we’d pay in England. Sure we can pay more but the Social Contract is broken. I was self employed for a while and never qualified for any benefits between contracts, never had a tax credit, nothing for child care, nothing for child benefit, DC disadvantaged in Uni applications, have to use private medicine as can’t see a gp.

it’s a huge amount for little return. If we had well run schools, great public transport then I’d be ok with it but every thing absolutely every thing is crap.

I should get a bonus in the new year and will divert as much as I can into a pension. My DH hasn’t maxed his pension contributions do far but hopefully will do the same as me and put up to the max.

If I can make it work I’d move residency to England for our remaining working years.

The fiscal drag is a disgrace.

Happyhippos21 · 19/12/2023 23:19

Choosychoice · 19/12/2023 21:20

I really don’t think this is the case. Rachel Reeves is an experienced professional. She knows what she’s doing. The SNP have all the intelligence of a lettuce.

Show quote history

Scottish labour were supportive of 1p in the £ tax rises a few years ago

Happyhippos21 · 19/12/2023 23:25

MuchasSmoochas · 19/12/2023 22:33

I wonder about this too. Unemployment rate slightly under 4%. I suspect many people are working lower hours but you get 30 hours a week nursery funding?

This is another scandal similar to the university tuition. And the free bus fares. The amount the scot gov pay for the 30 hrs is very low. Many nurseries ask parents with free hours to subsidise. My DC nursery are currently debating whether to pull out of the 1140 free hour scheme because they say they are struggling to keep their business viable being a part of it. So if i want to keep working its £85 per day. You cant go else where because decent nurseries have waiting lists 1 and 2 years long due to childcare shortage. Its a dreadful cycle.