Who's considered emmigrating because of tax?

hermante

The comparison between Hong Kong and the UK doesn't really work. Anyway, HK has very high fuel taxes too. You would have to compare it with London. China also pays for many things for HK, such as embassies, most diplomats, and the army.

The HK government doens't understand the Laffer curve either. When they lowered their tax rate from 17%, they expected revenues to fall but instead they increased. The thing is that HK tax comes mostly from land, which is created by building higher and higher. 10 floor building with 2 flats per floor? Buy each of the landlords out for $20 million, tear it down and rebuild 50 floors with 4 flats each, and sell for $5 mill --> profit! Hardworking salaryman takes out a mortgage to buy his new flat -- bank conjures up money and pays it to the property developer, who pays tax to the government. Instead of paying huge income tax, the salaryman pays it back to the bank, but the government has already taken its share when the property developer earned the profit.

In the UK homeowners conspire to keep prices up, so it becomes harder and harder for new buyers to enter the market. The government already taxes incomes. Now, some councils are trying to help first time buyers get a deposit. When you get a mortgage, your bank sends the money straight into the bank account of the previous owner. So now the government has paid the bank, who manages money much more efficiently and will not let the government claw it back.

Randvegeta, your $6000 is waiting for you to claim. Google it. However, a flight to Hong Kong from the UK costs more than that You can easily get by on £2 a day if you only buy Tesco value and Sainsbury's basics, but having spent my formative years in Asia most of that stuff makes me feel ill. I think it would be different if you had been brought up on it.

Randvegeta

hermante wrote: »

The comparison between Hong Kong and the UK doesn't really work. Anyway, HK has very high fuel taxes too. You would have to compare it with London. China also pays for many things for HK, such as embassies, most diplomats, and the army.

The HK government doens't understand the Laffer curve either. When they lowered their tax rate from 17%, they expected revenues to fall but instead they increased. The thing is that HK tax comes mostly from land, which is created by building higher and higher. 10 floor building with 2 flats per floor? Buy each of the landlords out for $20 million, tear it down and rebuild 50 floors with 4 flats each, and sell for $5 mill --> profit! Hardworking salaryman takes out a mortgage to buy his new flat -- bank conjures up money and pays it to the property developer, who pays tax to the government. Instead of paying huge income tax, the salaryman pays it back to the bank, but the government has already taken its share when the property developer earned the profit.

In the UK homeowners conspire to keep prices up, so it becomes harder and harder for new buyers to enter the market. The government already taxes incomes. Now, some councils are trying to help first time buyers get a deposit. When you get a mortgage, your bank sends the money straight into the bank account of the previous owner. So now the government has paid the bank, who manages money much more efficiently and will not let the government claw it back.

Randvegeta, your $6000 is waiting for you to claim. Google it. However, a flight to Hong Kong from the UK costs more than that You can easily get by on £2 a day if you only buy Tesco value and Sainsbury's basics, but having spent my formative years in Asia most of that stuff makes me feel ill. I think it would be different if you had been brought up on it.

Well I travel a lot to HK any way given my business runs in HK. Hopefully I can get it when I get back.

bendix

hermante wrote: »

The comparison between Hong Kong and the UK doesn't really work. Anyway, HK has very high fuel taxes too. You would have to compare it with London. China also pays for many things for HK, such as embassies, most diplomats, and the army.

The HK government doens't understand the Laffer curve either. When they lowered their tax rate from 17%, they expected revenues to fall but instead they increased. The thing is that HK tax comes mostly from land, which is created by building higher and higher. 10 floor building with 2 flats per floor? Buy each of the landlords out for $20 million, tear it down and rebuild 50 floors with 4 flats each, and sell for $5 mill --> profit! Hardworking salaryman takes out a mortgage to buy his new flat -- bank conjures up money and pays it to the property developer, who pays tax to the government. Instead of paying huge income tax, the salaryman pays it back to the bank, but the government has already taken its share when the property developer earned the profit.

In the UK homeowners conspire to keep prices up, so it becomes harder and harder for new buyers to enter the market. The government already taxes incomes. Now, some councils are trying to help first time buyers get a deposit. When you get a mortgage, your bank sends the money straight into the bank account of the previous owner. So now the government has paid the bank, who manages money much more efficiently and will not let the government claw it back.

Randvegeta, your $6000 is waiting for you to claim. Google it. However, a flight to Hong Kong from the UK costs more than that You can easily get by on £2 a day if you only buy Tesco value and Sainsbury's basics, but having spent my formative years in Asia most of that stuff makes me feel ill. I think it would be different if you had been brought up on it.

Fuel seems to be pretty much the same in HK as I remember seeing in London. The key thing is that so few people (percentage wise) need to have cars in HK because of the small size of the place and very extensive, very efficient and very cheap public transport system and superbly affordable taxis.

The power costs for my place here in HK seem ridiculous cheap also. I've only had one (monthly) power bill so far but it was around £37 for the entire month, and I run the aircon all the time i am in the place, including all night while I'm sleeping because it's the hottest time of year.

China paying for embassies etc. And army? Sure it does, but remember that HK is part of China; it's just dedicated as as special administrative region. They are not stupid in Beijing.

As for the $6000 refund, no need for Rand to fly to HK to get it. It can be applied for online and credited to a HK bank account.

DS4215

You can probably feed a family of 4 for about £5-6/day without too much trouble. Your dietary choices may increase the cost (more meat, fish, etc) but that should keep you well fed.

Tax is far too complicated. Agree with the other posters above and scrap the lot and start again. Better still have everyone on the same rate of tax. £10k personal allowance and then 30% each (or whatever those are just finger in the air figures). No NI, no tax credits. Just sit down with a calculator, work out how much we spend as a country and the figures will just fall out. Simples.

I'll sort out world peace later.

rictus123

I am a 40% tax payer at 20 years old. I spent a day reading about on forums and internet articles about emigrating. The conclusion being simple, not for me. My job is not that uk specific, however, its manual labour so would be alot harder to do the same amount i do here in 15 degrees, abroad in say 30 degrees+ and the heat doesnt really bother me but this is what im used to. One place i looked at was down under. The grass does seem greener thinking about it but after a simple bit of research, its not all it is cracked up to be and not for everyone.

Really all it boils down to is primary school stuff. The more you earn, the more tax you pay. 20% tax payers need 40 and 50% tax payers. We would not need to draw so much income from tax if it wasnt for so many people being so greedy. Ie, perfectly physical people who are signed on but working for cash in hand. Any offshore worker has to give urine samples to prove they dont have any drink or drugs in their system before they can work offshore. After they pass they are allowed to earn money which they pay alot of taxes with. The taxes they pay could be that going to a laze about who just cant be arsed getting a job and would rather waste their life away with no purpose yet drugs and drink. Yet they do not have to give urine samples to prove they have not been drinking/taking drugs to pick up their money for sitting doing f.all. Countrys tax system is very flawed, everyone has different ideas though but i think we can learn from other places.

Swings and round abouts, everyone has their own opinion but for me we need to keep as much British here as possible(aslong as decent, honest, working, tax paying etc) so we dont need to tax as much but everyone gets taxed. The minimum wage is another thing. If it was to be a bit higher(i know a few self employed will have a go at me and say they wouldnt be able to employ if it was higher),say up to £7.50 or so an hour so a 50 hour week would see 19.5k gross income, £1300 a month take home - plenty to live alone at reasonable lifestyle then we would soon see there is not so many young girls trying to get up the duff as young as possible to get there own place and benifits for sitting looking after a kid.

gadgetmind

rictus123 wrote: »

The minimum wage is another thing. If it was to be a bit higher(i know a few self employed will have a go at me and say they wouldnt be able to employ if it was higher),say up to £7.50 or so an hour

Sadly, many people don't have the skills that would make an hour of their toil worth this amount, so they would find themselves unemployable.

As a result, if such a move is mooted, I will start investing in companies developing technologies in robotics.

de1amo

i live abroad and see expats being wiped out by unforseen illnesses that can easily wipe out a life time of savings and leave their pension years as miserable existances--no insurance company will provide full comprehensive cover passed a certain age!

-i work and pay into the national insurance system where i live but i still wont make myself expat from the uk because i see great value in paying my uk income taxes to afford me some sort of cover when i retire here and my level of medical coverage drops due to 'pensioner'

Randvegeta

bendix wrote: »

As for the $6000 refund, no need for Rand to fly to HK to get it. It can be applied for online and credited to a HK bank account.

This just made my day! Free money! WOO!

John_Pierpoint

gadgetmind wrote: »

Sadly, many people don't have the skills that would make an hour of their toil worth this amount, so they would find themselves unemployable.

As a result, if such a move is mooted, I will start investing in companies developing technologies in robotics.

Let's face it, for as long as workers in Vietnam can be hired for pence per hour, UK shirkers at pounds per hour are unemployable.

As technology gets more and more complicated, I don't know what the answer is for those who cannot catch up - there are millions if not billions world wide.

de1amo wrote: »

i live abroad and see expats being wiped out by unforseen illnesses that can easily wipe out a life time of savings and leave their pension years as miserable existances--no insurance company will provide full comprehensive cover passed a certain age!

-i work and pay into the national insurance system where i live but i still wont make myself expat from the uk because i see great value in paying my uk income taxes to afford me some sort of cover when i retire here and my level of medical coverage drops due to 'pensioner'

Has it occurred to you that returning to the UK might not be a return to something you would recognise as the petro currency new millennium society you remember?

Pub quiz question:
One hundred years ago, what was the world' third richest country in terms of GDP per head?

Here is a hint:
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9K3MOCG0.htm

[Of course it won't happen here, any similarity between this news story and the current situation at " Dale Farm " is completely coincidental.]

bobwilson

Suffice it to say everything Randvegeta has said is right.

I don't know where all these HMRC loving fanatics come from. UK has to be one of the worst most insanely immoral countries for tax.

In answer to your original question, YES! I'm looking to move abroad as we speak. I was considering Andorra, and now I'm looking at Isle of Man. For my situation, I'll can push to earn over £100k for a couple of years and then it drops to £0 per year after that. I therefore need to save as much as the money I earn as possible, to help me get on the insanely expensive UK housing ladder. UK taxes assume we will be earning the same for long periods of time, so I appear to fall in one of the many UK tax 'anomolies' that they didn't consider.

It's possible to earn £200k in a year, and nothing for the rest of your life. Instead of letting you keep all of it, you have to pay £110 to the tax man. I just cannot understand what the UK does with all these crazy taxes. Why is the NHS so crap? I've NEVER had a good service from them. Why is it so impossible to find a NHS Dentist? Why are our schools so bad? I've been mugged several times in London, and chased by an armed gang and the police did absolutely nothing. They didn't even log it as a crime; ''Chasing you with weapons is not a crime, sir.'' Years later, I noticed a man being mugged on the side of the road, I called the police and they never arrived. They beat him until he was unconscious, and I had to drive up and drag him into my car, then drive away to safety. It was terrifying. The police are Absolute rubbish. Don't get me started on GPs or hospitals. Half my family wouldn't be alive today if it wasn't for our personal diagnosis' on google and paying for private doctors.

Other countries have less taxes and better public services. From what you say, Randgveta, HK sounds like a much more sensible option for those of us sensible enough to leave. :T

If we got decent services, the taxes would make sense. But it seems we pay for a pile of sh*t.

I'm happy to pay zero tax for zero service. I already get zero service here in the UK.

UK will be losing a lot more people in the future if they don't do something about this ridiculously high tax system with no returns; I will only be one of many.

So how about setting up a Ltd. in Isle of Man?