Do you play by the rules?

rickbonar

And I always pay in cash... but that isn't the same as cash in hand is it?

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psdie wrote: »

Re-read what I wrote Gov takes ~46% total income tax + NI on salary ABOVE the Personal Allowance. That's 20% basic rate Income Tax (more for ~£35k+), 12% employee NI, 13.8% employer's NI = 45.8%. No, I'm not including other taxes like fuel duty, VAT etc - only direct tax on salaries

And that's a really bad way to view things (unless you're from the Daily Mail, and the more sensationalist the number the better, regardless of how baseless it is). Do remember that the government is "kind" enough to give you a personal allowance to begin with (view it as taxed at 0%). Citing Romania again, there's no personal allowance there at all (everything you make is taxed). And the taxes add up to 51.5% of the real gross (as viewed by the employer or self-employed individual) for everybody (no income bands either). You can't compare that 51.5% with your 46%, because you didn't take all the money into account. But when you compare it to the 23-33% effective rates I calculated, you get a better picture.

Now that I think about it, not even the people in the 50% band are able to reach that 51.5%... because the effective rate will asymptotically reach 50% the more income they make.

Someone who's wittier than me could use this to beat anyone who condones tax evasion in the UK