The pay back

Graham_Devon

The UK's spiralling debt will lead to tax rises, spending cuts and delayed retirement far beyond what is being discussed, a think tank has said.

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said the retirement age should be raised to 70 if debt levels are to fall by 2015.

Alternatively, the government would have to raise the basic rate of income tax by 7p in the pound, it argued.

Never seen an actual figure put on tax rises by anyone really, and I realise this is just one think tank.

But 7p in the pound!! Thats £70 extra taken off us per £1000 we make. Or, on a 25k wage, an EXTRA £1700 taken off us per year (all approx rough figures not taking into accont a myriad of other factors for the beady eyed).

They estimate debt could reach 93% of GDP by 2015 according to todays basis.

Other measures they see are:
- A five YEAR pay freeze for the public sector.
- Applying VAT to a wider range of products (I would assume food etc)

Some pretty harsh hitting stuff.

Really2

Graham_Devon wrote: »

But 7p in the pound!! Thats £70 extra taken off us per £1000 we make. Or, on a 25k wage, an EXTRA £1700 taken off us per year (all approx rough figures not taking into accont a myriad of other factors for the beady eyed).

Like what £70 X 25 is

iolanthe07

Under a Labour government in the 1960's the basic tax rate was 33%, so we have been there before.

lemonjelly

In fairness The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) rarely tend to come close to getting anything right...

Rochdale_Pioneers

We have seen the base rate of income tax drop over the last 30 years - 30s, then high and mid 20s all the way through the Thatcher years, then finally dropping faster in the 90s and recently. Painful though the concept of paying more tax is, its what the rest of Europe has to do to get the kind of public services they want.

Here we think we can have taxes based on American rates and services based on European funding. What I'd like to see is a wholescale restructure of tax so that we can abolish tax credits by simply rebasing allowances and tax rates so that the poorest don't pay tax at all.

Graham_Devon

Really2 wrote: »

Like what £70 X 25 is

Minus tax allowances and all that guff! Just covering myself!

Rochdale_Pioneers wrote: »

We have seen the base rate of income tax drop over the last 30 years - 30s, then high and mid 20s all the way through the Thatcher years, then finally dropping faster in the 90s and recently. Painful though the concept of paying more tax is, its what the rest of Europe has to do to get the kind of public services they want.

Here we think we can have taxes based on American rates and services based on European funding. What I'd like to see is a wholescale restructure of tax so that we can abolish tax credits by simply rebasing allowances and tax rates so that the poorest don't pay tax at all.

I'm not going to pretend to know.

However, we are talking one tax here, income. I believe we are a fairly highly taxed nation, just so many different taxes all filling a pot. When relating things back to other times in history, we have to be careful not to forget about all the other taxes we now have, as income tax makes up just one of the taxes out there.

Spain for example may have income and council tax and thats it. (Just an example, obviously not correct!!).

Whereas the UK may have income tax, council tax, high fuel tax, road tax, NI, business rates etc etc etc.

Like I say, I don't know if other countries have more or less taxes. But a percentage of one tax is difficult to use when comparing to other countries.

Really2

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Minus tax allowances and all that guff! Just covering myself!

After PA most probably about an additional £1400 (PA is not far off £5K for most without perks)

Graham_Devon

Really2 wrote: »

After PA most probably about an additional £1400 (PA is not far off £5K for most without perks)

Probably about right.

You'd be left with roughly £17,700 out of your 25k I believe. £19,100 at the moment approx.

We also have NI going up 0.5% next year though, taking a further 100 quid!

I'm just seriously wondering whether it would actually be worth working, considering the welfare system at the moment. Serious thought! It would certainly stop a lot more people already on benefits from jumping into work.

kabayiri

In a similar vein to RP, what about abolishing tax thresholds full stop.

With the wide availability of computers and tinternet, what's wrong with a true sliding scale? The formula behind it can effectively mean those below a certain income level pay little or no tax still.

StevieJ

Rochdale_Pioneers wrote: »

We have seen the base rate of income tax drop over the last 30 years - 30s, then high and mid 20s all the way through the Thatcher years, then finally dropping faster in the 90s and recently. Painful though the concept of paying more tax is, its what the rest of Europe has to do to get the kind of public services they want.

Here we think we can have taxes based on American rates and services based on European funding. What I'd like to see is a wholescale restructure of tax so that we can abolish tax credits by simply rebasing allowances and tax rates so that the poorest don't pay tax at all.

What about VAT increases from 8% to 17.5% ? what about the removal of MIRAS, I could go on.

Active_X

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Minus tax allowances and all that guff! Just covering myself!



I'm not going to pretend to know.

However, we are talking one tax here, income. I believe we are a fairly highly taxed nation, just so many different taxes all filling a pot. When relating things back to other times in history, we have to be careful not to forget about all the other taxes we now have, as income tax makes up just one of the taxes out there.

Spain for example may have income and council tax and thats it. (Just an example, obviously not correct!!).

Whereas the UK may have income tax, council tax, high fuel tax, road tax, NI, business rates etc etc etc.

Like I say, I don't know if other countries have more or less taxes. But a percentage of one tax is difficult to use when comparing to other countries.

You know, it's not hard to use google to check if your talking rubbish, and believe me when I say that you are. The UK has some of the lowest taxes in Western Europe. Your proposition that the Spanish only pay income tax and council tax is laughable.