Tax Credits

SkyeKnight

michaels wrote: »

I would increase all wages by the Employers NI percentage (including for those who don't work enough hours for their employer to pay it) and then move the tax onto the employee. It is just rubbish to pretend that taxes on employment fall on anyone other than the employee, the sort of political chicanery that Brown believed in.

And then just for complete honesty lets call it income tax which is what it is. A lower rate tax payer takes home 68p for every 113.8p earned and a higher rate tax payer takes home 58p (where 13.8% is the employer's NI payments and the rest of the deductions are Income Tax and employee's NI)

That's a tax rate of 40% for the lower rate tax payer and 49% for the higher rate. It really bugs me when people moan about paying "twice the tax" as other workers when it's nothing like that amount!

Generali

SkyeKnight wrote: »

And then just for complete honesty lets call it income tax which is what it is. A lower rate tax payer takes home 68p for every 113.8p earned and a higher rate tax payer takes home 58p (where 13.8% is the employer's NI payments and the rest of the deductions are Income Tax and employee's NI)

That's a tax rate of 40% for the lower rate tax payer and 49% for the higher rate. It really bugs me when people moan about paying "twice the tax" as other workers when it's nothing like that amount!

What about the tax allowance? You're just looking at the marginal rate, the tax paid on the final pound earned.

BobQ

Generali wrote: »

The high cost of doing business in Australia, coupled with lax enforcement of cartel laws I suspect, means that the largest retailer of cycling goods to Australians is based in Portsmouth, Hants.

Wiggle is doing very well if it is managing to do this. Are they buying the goods from China and the Philippines?

CLAPTON

well, it ought to be compulsory for all self employed people to earn at least £9.50 per hour
if they don't the owner of the business should be heavily fined.

SkyeKnight

Generali wrote: »

What about the tax allowance? You're just looking at the marginal rate, the tax paid on the final pound earned.

The people I'm talking about are the ones who pay 40% Income Tax and say they pay "twice as much Income Tax" now they are a higher rate tax payer - so they are also talking about the marginal rate.

Generali

BobQ wrote: »

Wiggle is doing very well if it is managing to do this. Are they buying the goods from China and the Philippines?

Many of them I would imagine. The reality is the products come from all over the world.

The fact is that an Aussie can buy retail goods cheaper by purchasing them in the UK and having them shipped. That doesn't seem like an ideal economic model to me. Lots of people earn a living from retail.

Generali

SkyeKnight wrote: »

The people I'm talking about are the ones who pay 40% Income Tax and say they pay "twice as much Income Tax" now they are a higher rate tax payer - so they are also talking about the marginal rate.

You're on very thin ice quite frankly.

I CBA to get the link but I'm sure Google can help you if you'd like to dispute it. Top rate taxpayers pay well over half the income tax in the UK and the top 10% of earners something like a third.

HMRC collect the figures on this.

ukcarper

Quickly ran figures through tax cal someone on £30k pays about 22% of earnings in tax And NI, £60k about 30% and £120k about 40%.

dktreesea

mwpt wrote: »

Why do you feel that you know what's right or insulting for a person better than the person themselves? If the wage was so insulting, no one would do the job.

I would say they are only able to do the job for the price offered because the state is subsidising their income by paying working tax credits, child tax credits for their children and helping them with their rent and council tax.


It's about time we stopped this wholesale subsidy of businesses. I'd rather the money saved go into education.

dktreesea

Generali wrote: »

That's basically the model we have in Australia: a very high minimum wage plus compulsory extra 'penalty rates' at the weekend and on public holidays.

The result is a high cost of living: you earn a lot (comparatively) at the bottom of the wage chain but everything costs a fortune. Limes were $15/kg at the supermarket today and I just paid $3.98/kg for spuds.

Higher wages => higher prices. Aussies are also noticeably unlikely to start a risky business, I suspect because they can simply earn more here by sticking with the day job.

It's getting on for 15 years since I lived in Australia and Cadburys chocolate is still cheaper here now than it was back then. But at least the state doesn't subsidise businesses in Australia, giving you a better quality of businesses as a result. Bluntly, the takeaway shops here would never survive in Australia. People who have enough money in their pockets without having to revert to the State for a top up at least have more choice on how to spend their money.


And some foods are cheaper in Australia than you can buy them here. For example rump steak. AUD$21.99 a kilo from Super Butcher. Over here, Carringtons (Yorkshire) have 2 * 250g of Aberdeen Angus rump for £14.45, a mouthwatering £28.90 a kilo. Pounds, mind you.


Plus, people won't squander money so readily that they have earned directly.