A lifetime of tax

WaxiesDargle

What would be the total tax paid of the average earner if they had worked all their life til retirement...say from 16 -65

Also include rates/council tax in the equation...lets say you had your own house from aged 25

I know its a difficult one because of different circumstances

just curious

somethingcorporate

Interesting question, not as much as you think is probably the answer!

CLAPTON

the government spends about 40% of gdp so pretty easy to work out.

somethingcorporate

What would be an interesting comparison is the average working contribution to the average persons take from the state.

I am guessing that 95%+ of people would have a lifetime deficit.

agrinnall

somethingcorporate wrote: »

What would be an interesting comparison is the average working contribution to the average persons take from the state.

I am guessing that 95%+ of people would have a lifetime deficit.

How would you work out what the average person takes from the state? If you're referring to things like benefits then that would be reasonably easy, but what about use of the NHS, travelling by road and rail, emergency services, armed forces, and a myriad of other things that are paid for out of the public purse?

somethingcorporate

agrinnall wrote: »

How would you work out what the average person takes from the state? If you're referring to things like benefits then that would be reasonably easy, but what about use of the NHS, travelling by road and rail, emergency services, armed forces, and a myriad of other things that are paid for out of the public purse?

With great difficulty!

As a really (really!) crude method you could take the total government spend and divide it by the population for each year. So an average spend per person of the population.

It would be interesting to see how much tax income from businesses and other non-income tax related tax revenue support the average Joe on the street through their lifetime.

CLAPTON

somethingcorporate wrote: »

With great difficulty!

As a really (really!) crude method you could take the total government spend and divide it by the population for each year. So an average spend per person of the population.

It would be interesting to see how much tax income from businesses and other non-income tax related tax revenue support the average Joe on the street through their lifetime.

the benefit from business to the average joe is obviously zero as a company's income must come from the average Joe

somethingcorporate

But companies provide services and products for the revenue they generate. It's not just a tax money-go-round between businesses.

John_Pierpoint

Here are some attempts to illustrate the changes:
[This "flower" chart is the best illustration (sorry it is interactive so you have to click it yourself); however does it cover EU spending on our behalf and all local authority spending not to mention the subsidies we pay to the Celtic fringes? The government borrowing from the future is not there except in the form of interest payments. No PFI and other obligations such as the non fossil fuel levy ? Then we can start thinking about the taxation by inflation (ie the enforced gap between interest rates and the rate of inflation) How about those departments that have been hived off as "agencies" and now charge for what used to be free (eg planning permissions and building regulation fees, parking fees, drugs, tolls, the list goes on and on). - we could go on to debate other commitments to the future (mainly unfunded pensions).]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/apr/25/uk-public-spending-1963

John_Pierpoint

So we still have a fairly massive spending gap/additional borrowing requirement :

WaxiesDargle

instead of interesting comparisons and clapton saying it's easy to work out...can anyone give an answer?

cheers