Mansion tax concerns

[Bilberrybeaut]

The Greens are proposing a mansion tax in the budget, with a rumoured proposed value of ‘mansion’ of £1m. I’m really concerned that this might happen. If it does it would be the final straw for us. We earn well and already pay hundreds of pounds more EACH MONTH in income tax than we would if we lived in England. Our stamp duty was tens of thousands more. A truly insane amount of money. I am taxed so highly that my marginal tax rate is 67% and yet the Greens think I’m not paying enough tax. How much is enough???

If they want to squeeze even more tax out of us we’ll leave. You cannot keep coming back to the same people with the begging bowl. It has got to the stage when they are taking the piss. We’ll go to England and be hundreds of £ better off every month.

But that’s just it. State support is shite in Scotland. It’s shite in the rest of the UK too. If I’m paying Scandinavian taxes I want to have Scandinavian benefits. I’ll take Denmarks where unemployment benefit is 90% of your former salary. Actually something you could live off.

But the reason we don’t have these benefits is the higher rate tax payers+ are the only ones paying Scandinavian levels of tax here. Basic rate taxpayers pay far, far less here than they do anywhere else in Europe. We have a huge nil rate band compared to other countries. And we don’t incentivise working in the way they do overseas. In fact the means testing of certain benefits means that should you suddenly become unable to work and had been working well, you get LESS in benefits as a tax payer recently out of work than someone who’s never worked a day in their lives, despite having higher outgoings.

Totally agree. SNP can’t stand them. Amateurs. Going on about child poverty if they actually improved the economy there would not be so much poverty. The tax is so punitive. They would never be able to do it in England but I guess the economy is so bad in Scotland hardly anyone pays the higher tax or realise they are paying more than the rest of the uk. And the services are crap and not better than England. It’s depressing.

Op I'm with you what have SNP done to get young people into work? Or create any decent jobs in Scotland.

They did nothing to help keep Grangemouth open. There were a lot of decent paying jobs in Grangemouth.

I know far to many young people with degrees and no ability to actually get a job beyond pub work.

And that said I don't believe the free unis are sustainable. Did one of the unis not pay off 800 staff recently?

Glasgow the land of ipads, have paid off every school librarian.

Schools have less than £1 a week per child for resources. Yet they want them to provide free breakfast clubs.

South Lanarkshire have cut school transport for secondary kids. No consideration on what is a safe walking route, or what routes buses actually go, parents are responsible for escorting children if necessary.

I do think giving more money to colleges was vital, and Dundee uni was going to go under without that cash so that was vital too.

The SNP fail to think strategically. They just don’t work with large employers and the UK government to bring jobs to Scotland, or keep the petrochemicals jobs going here. They stood by and let tens of thousands of jobs go in Aberdeen. Criminal.

Lots of unis are struggling in Scotland because of the low rate the Scot gov pay them for Scottish students.

Totally agree free uni is unsustainable and the SNP know this. They are trying to kick it into the long grass though in the hope they can make someone else take that decision and be the bad guy so they can persist with their myth that under the SNP Scotland is the land of milk and honey.

DD is currently a student teacher doing teaching practice in a very deprived area of Glasgow. She is shocked at how few resources the school has for things like art or literacy but hey, free iPads.

can’t get a GP appointment for love nor money. Waiting lists for non emergency through the roof - my mum was quoted 2 years for a hip replacement.

The SNP have been a total failure.

Which in turn means they limit the number of Scottish students.

Here's another belter free swimming great. Except the school can't afford a bus, so whole morning wasted walking kids to and from the pool for a 45min lesson!

London prices are high. Like most cities, if you want the best post code, you pay. I think the best areas in London are more than Edinburgh and there’s more of them.

London wages are higher too. And bigger variety of jobs.
You can't really compare on houses alone.

I agree. However even with London weighting, teachers and nurses struggle to buy without having significant transport costs. Edinburgh salaries are pretty good I would have thought. If they aren’t, I’m surprised houses are so much. Who is buying them?

Don't be under the illusion you work any harder than anyone else.

Pretty sure the minimum wage Home Carers working in Aberdeenshire over the last few weeks would disagree with you.

The mansion tax % hasn't even been set in legislation yet and you have until 1 April 2028 to sell up and head off down south.

Just remember, there is a wealth hating Labour Government down there and by 2028, you might find an equivalent mansion levy on your Council Tax bill waiting for you on the doormat.

“Wealth hating Labour” I’m cool with. At least some of their party have some form of intelligence. I can’t name and one SNP MSP that’s not a total idiot. That’s what I find galling.

Looking at the figures every department’s budget have been cut with the exception of health which has had a very marginal increase, and welfare which has had a bigger increase. Scotland is nothing but a welfare state now.

The maximum that any lower earning taxpayer in Scotland is better off after income tax than had they lived in England is 75p a week. Not a lot you can buy for that.

Labour won't last in England.
But their is nobody to take SNP out of Scotland. There is no balance in Scottish politics.

Sorry no sympathy if you cant afford Mansion Tax sell it and move many benefits and Health service are universal, you take advantage of those.
Those with the most wealth should pay the most, there is no other way.

The thing is parts of the NHS are so dire it’s unusable. CAMHS for instance. It’s non-existent. Hip operations. The thinking seems to be if you can afford to go private you should. I have private medical cover for me and my family so I’m ok by others aren’t in such a fortunate position.

Those who have the most money do pay the most tax. ‘There is no other way’, of course there are other ways. Just ask the other parties. Labour and the Tories both recognise that the current burden on higher taxpayers is ludicrous and are suggesting cuts. A country could act with fiscal responsibility and save money.

The Scottish government seem to have included £40m of overseas aid for example in the budget, even though THIS ISN’T A DEVOLVED MATTER. The UK government give overseas aid on behalf of the whole of the UK. The Scottish government seem to want to give move money away on top of that. Why? Is this to fund their Iranian bots? Or hand money to Hamas to free Humza’s relatives? Why do this?

I despise the land tax.

We've saved £10,000 but will need to save a lot more to move to a detached (3 bed) in our estate, just to lay that to the government.

Would much rather pay the cash on anything else like holidays for my son!

Those who have the most money do pay the most tax. ‘There is no other way’, of course there are other ways. Just ask the other parties. Labour and the Tories both recognise that the current burden on higher taxpayers is ludicrous and are suggesting cuts. A country could act with fiscal responsibility and save money.

Yes I now know 3 men who are resident overseas 2 in middle east 1 in Spain to avoid Scottish punitive taxes.
Wife's and family's remain in the UK the Dads are home no more than 90 days per year.

Work needs to pay for everyone, we can't have a situation where people are better off doing minimal hours and claiming top up benefits.

Not to mention increasing tax take by incentivising people to earn more, be more productive…increasing tax take is not the only option.

when the salary sacrifice changes come in, in 2027, that 43-50k income tax difference is going to bite even harder.

Yes paying more tax than lower earners I can deal with, paying more tax than if I had stayed in England I can deal with. But I'm never going to go back to full time when I'd only see 40% of those additional earnings. I'd much rather have a work-life balance and be able to pick my kids up from school thanks. Reducing the burden may actually increase the tax take, but hey ho.

If the work needs to be done / if it would make money for the business , then you personally not doing it , you choosing work life balance , just frees up the work for someone else

very very few people have actual unique skills that mean real
money would be lost to the economy if they don’t personally do the work

if it’s not worth it to you it will be to someone else and so taxes will be raised or people moved off benefits -

which after all is better / one person being taxed loads to pay for someone else unemployment, or two people taxed less and one less person unemployed?

Someone said they looked at rightmove for properties in Edinburgh over £1 million but probably all of those in the £900k have a chance of being sold for over £1million due to the offers over system.

I agree those who have the most should pay the most but I don’t think this is necessarily the middle earners, I would prefer any government targeted those dodging tax first. I know my privilege but don’t like seeing how much money is wasted by the governments (UK & SCO), as a childless middle earner who (touch wood) rarely uses the NHS and whose average sized 3 bed flat may fall into this category within the future if prices continue rise I’m pissed off if I lose the salary sacrifice benefit too. It’s one of the few perks I get while I shell out for full price on everything in order to subsidise so many others, especially where there’s a proportion who take the piss.

You can be as rude as you like, socialism doesn’t work because other people’s money eventually runs out. I assume you don’t think the benefits system needs reform? Something tells me you wouldn’t be so incredibly magnanimous if it was coming from your own pocket.

Cambridge - basically has London prices!

That's just down the road from me. I've not noticed if as I don't go along there that often.
Crazy prices. I bought my house in 1994 for £190k and that was a lot then. The house behind me same size just sold for £1,150,000! So a 6 fold increase but wages haven't gone up that much.

We will downsize in the next few years.
Crazy thing is we bought this when my husband had just become a partner and their profit share wasn't huge in the beginning. My daughter is earning slightly less than he was but you can't get the same property for your money now.

Scudget 😂Thats a new one but apt!!
Down with squandering oor money SNP