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.

Even if people won’t leave they will change behaviour to reduce tax. It’s very easy to pay more into your pension and the threshold was lifted by the UK government so you can pay more in and not be constrained by the lifetime limit, I will - my tax take for 24/25 will be lower as I will definitely add more to my pension. Then you have the impact of people with less money to spend so that impacts local businesses.

The bigger problem is that Scotland has become very unattractive for those firms that are UK wide to attract top talent to move to Scotland - so they build their teams in other locations.

Graduates starting out in their careers will look to England - it’s proven that the ‘freebies’ in Scotland don’t compensate for the increased tax , especially the ‘free’ tuition which is capped and quota driven. Look at clearing post results - loads of places for the English or Scots that qualify for widening participation but none for the kids of taxpayers that are paying for it all.

Very few people will leave because of this tax rise.

You’re so right @Meeplemakeglasgow the majority will leave because of absolutely everything else.

@ForbiddenColour i wonder if scot gov will be factoring in a significant loss of tax from the portion of us who have hammered our pension contributions and can take early retirement.

@Meeplemakeglasgow if very few are affected then the margins are very slim for anyone in the bracket doesnt stump up. I cant imagine many in the bracket are Penny pinching so increasing pension contributions should be a given.

*Also fed up hearing about all this ferry pish as if it’s the main crime in the world at the moment.

Yes, a ferry contract was messed up and cost a lot of money.

But in the grand scheme of things it’s not that big a deal.*

You go over to Mull (check Calmac for cancellations first, maybe) and say that out loud over in Tobermory, let me know how you get on.

"Very few people in the country earn enough to be highly affected."

That's it in a nutshell. Most don't earn anywhere near enough to be affected by this tax hike.

Ah well, screw them then. They’re probably Tories too. They deserve it, right?

But what if this small number of people paid more than half the total income tax take…?

Your anger is misdirected, take it up with your local councillor and write to them about the injustices you feel strongly about.

You do realise any over 28k pays more tax then England? Also the number who get pulled into 42% will increase?! This isn't just a super rich problem it's teachers, nurses, public sector workers etc etc.

Then look at already struggling to attract NHS consultants! Did you know that Ninewells in Dundee had so few in oncology that patients were travelling 100miles to Aberdeen or Edinburgh for treatment?!
Or heavily pregnant women in Moray were travelling 90min-3hours to Aberdeen in labour on a road which often gets shut in snow as Greys hospital didn't have enough obstetrician staff so was shut for births.

Seriously do you not realise that taxing higher then the rUK means less likely to attract vital Dr's, consultants or other critical services?!
What will the job advert be.....come to Scotland where you pay more for crappier services but look if you don't live in a city then we have lots of fresh air?!

No thanks, I’ll just redirect income into pension, as discussed.

You are right, there are not enough people paying enough tax in Scotland to fund the SNP’s shambolic policies. The govt is simply living beyond its means. Some simple budgeting classes would be useful.

Scotland needs more higher rate tax payers, not less, which will be the direct impact of this policy. The usual rubbish about “broader shoulders” paying more is SNP gaslighting. Everyone over £28k odd is paying more tax in Scotland, hardly broad shoulders!

The government needs to reign in its spending, less money on vanity projects like overseas embassies, destined to fail court cases, free tuition (not free, paid for by tax paying residents). Just removing the so called free tuition would go a long way to balancing the books.

There are too many low paying jobs out there. A new supermarket opening up in an area bringing jobs is often seen as a good thing. But is it? It's all low paid jobs. most people have no choice if they have no qualifications.

I don't write the rules but as I have four DC I am pleased that they can go to university if that's what they want and their tuition fees will be paid for by those who are higher earners. It's in your interests for those getting a chance to succeed in life taking the opportunities that come their way. They could be future scientists, engineers etc. It's short sighted only to think of your own family.

Aren’t you just thinking of your own family here and what others will pay for?

Also I agree with pp a diminishing pool of higher tax payers is not a good thing. Who will pay what you’re after?

Well that depends on the supermarket doesn't it.
Aldi the starting salary for full time is around 22k a year rising to nearly 28k....become a deputy manager and your around 32k, rise to area manager and its between 50-57k.......
The concept that supermarket workers are unskilled and low paid is pretty outdated. The lowest paid in society are generally carers.

Not everyone is suited to university or degrees. More should be done for apprenticeships for instance but guess what that needs......businesses to be able to afford to take them on and invest in training. Guess when businesses struggle......when they can't attract the right level of calibre to be successful.....oh look its a huge linked circle!

Also the concept that a degree automatically equals a better job automatically is also fairly old! To get the decent graduate jobs (which arent healthcare settings) you not only have to have a degree but also experience doing unpaid internships, volunteering etc etc etc. Oh and those health care professionals can easily go to the NHS in England as well.......

Yes because everything here is awful isn’t it?

If anyone thinks moving to England will magically solve all their problems then I’d pay to see their reaction after a few months living there.

Ultimately we still have housing and living standards that are affordable.

Especially compared to the nicer parts of England, all of Ireland, Australia, Canada, New Zealand etc..

I don't think anyone would think that moving to England would solve all of their problems but it would make them many thousands of pounds better off. So where there is a choice about where to live they might choose England.

I disagree that in Scotland the housing and living standards are better than the nicer parts or England or Ireland. Plenty of lovely places to live outside the hot spots like London. And as an Irish person I can't believe you were so quick to write off ALL of Ireland! I can't speak for overseas, but that was never the discussion here. Mainly the Edinburgh crowd have been saying they will move to Northumberland just a 1hr commute which I would say is a beautiful part of England.

I’ve read most of the arguments and it’s still utter pish.

Mostly uppity people who believe their little darlings are being discriminated against because they didn’t get their choice of Uni places.

Yet strangely the children of middle class parents are still a lot more likely to go to higher education and have better outcomes?

Bit of a juxtaposition really.

The reality is that when there’s a level playing field little Fraser and Sophie mostly just aren’t anything special.

Yes they may have got good exam results at Boroughmuir or Bearsden but so did every other kid applying for their course.

But the other kids may have had to work a lot harder to get them, may have a more mature outlook and may impress the course leaders more.

What parents really mean when they moan about this stuff is that they want some fees to be charged so it encourages poorer kids not to apply and their children have less competition.

Its never been easy to get in to Russell Group Universities, exams are only part of it.

Blaming the poor for your child not being impressive enough to get there is utterly disgusting behaviour though.

Interesting that 40% of adult Scots pay no tax does anyone know the proportion of Scots who are net tax payers (those that pay in more tax than they get out in services and benefits)?

I actually agree, I didn’t say it was a great decision or that it will achieve its desired outcome.

Im just pointing out that 99% of people who are threatening to leave the country because of this are full of faeces.

Very few people will uproot their entire lives and family to prove a point over a tax rise that will affect a small percentage of people.

No one is blaming the poor - they are blaming the caps that limit the numbers which is driven by the crap funding which in turn is driven by the fact that the tax take is relying on a relatively small number of tax payers. Tax payers that the government is determined to drive away. The focus should be on improving the economy to encourage business and people to move to Scotland.

If you think we have crappy services you should try living in the north of England.

The extra you pay at normal salary levels is hardly life changing.

Easily offset by cheaper house prices, no uni fees etc..

This nonsense about struggling to attract companies is bizarre, one of the main reasons companies come here is that is cheaper to operate than the South East yet we have a well educated skilled workforce.

I work in law, this and the financial sector in Edinburgh is full of people who relocated from London for quality of life reasons.

if you think they’ll all be running back down because of this you’ll need to persuade them to give up their lovely big houses for a 2 bedroom flat above a kebab shop.

Do you not have to earn over £54k to pay in more than you take out on average?

it’s the 38% of people who pay no income tax which makes our country not able to afford good public services. For that everyone needs to work.

It’s not London or Scotland is it? It’s Manchester / Leeds / Newcastle/ Lake District fully remote or Scotland.

Again, utter pish.

There have always been caps at universities.

That’s why courses are competitive in the first place.

Do we want to increase the places to make sure everybody gets to do what they want whether they’re good enough or not?

Of course not.

It’s just an argument to soothe parent’s egos when they find out their child didn’t make the grade.

The tax base argument does not stand up, on one hand you’re complaining about too much tax then on the other we don’t have a tax base.

I’m a conveyancer, my firm handles thousands of sales a year, after the last tax rises we had the same warnings yet I have still to hear of a single solitary case of people moving because of them.

Not a single one.

I have no doubt it’ll be the same this time.

If people don’t change behaviour they’ll raise a bit. If they do then they’ll still have a gap and need more raises or cuts

Getting into that higher tax cycle won’t help them