My journey to a debt free life

alt80

@enthusiasticsaver it's a joke they should tax on number of people in the house not the house itself. Poll tax effectively just yet again easy sitting targets being punished for us having a massive government approach.

enthusiasticsaver

LOL.  Maggie Thatcher tried that in the 80s and it was massively unpopular.  Riots in the street.  

alt80

@enthusiasticsaver That's my point re easy sitting targets - people willing to pay for a half decent house will shut up and pay. Might moan about it but not going to riot etc.

As you know 2 adults 1 kid in my household - don't use the schools, very infrequently use the NHS. Never had a fire, don't need care services etc. You pay nearly £1k/a less than me idk if you use the services either but doesn't seem right to me that I pay £1k more because my house was worth a bit more the last time the VOA checked.

enthusiasticsaver

alt80 said:

@enthusiasticsaver That's my point re easy sitting targets - people willing to pay for a half decent house will shut up and pay. Might moan about it but not going to riot etc.

As you know 2 adults 1 kid in my household - don't use the schools, very infrequently use the NHS. Never had a fire, don't need care services etc. You pay nearly £1k/a less than me idk if you use the services either but doesn't seem right to me that I pay £1k more because my house was worth a bit more the last time the VOA checked.

There has always been this ongoing debate about how to charge local taxes.  My preference would be on income but I don't think you would like that either LOL.  Our council tax as a percentage of our Net income is about 6% over the year.  Yours is less than 3% as you have a higher income than us.  I would hazard a guess that OBLs is more like 10% or more.  

We don't use council services any more than you do probably.  It is the poorest in society who depend on them mainly.  I am ok with supporting them. 

alt80

The income tax would depend on how it was worked out ha most of my pay is dividends but yeah would probably get me. Higher income but higher outgoings so %age of income not entirely fair method either.

Not a total right winger but fairly so economically lot of my social views are at odds with my economic views lol.

enthusiasticsaver

alt80 said:

The income tax would depend on how it was worked out ha most of my pay is dividends but yeah would probably get me. Higher income but higher outgoings so %age of income not entirely fair method either.

Not a total right winger but fairly so economically lot of my social views are at odds with my economic views lol.

The high outgoings are a personal choice though and someone on lower income does not have that choice but lets not get into that debate  .  Yep, I had assumed you were fairly right wing especially when it comes to government finances.  I align more central to left. 

Cherryfudge

alt80 said:

@enthusiasticsaver That's my point re easy sitting targets - people willing to pay for a half decent house will shut up and pay. Might moan about it but not going to riot etc.

As you know 2 adults 1 kid in my household - don't use the schools, very infrequently use the NHS. Never had a fire, don't need care services etc. You pay nearly £1k/a less than me idk if you use the services either but doesn't seem right to me that I pay £1k more because my house was worth a bit more the last time the VOA checked.

Willing to pay = able to pay at the point at which they acquired the house. I might be quite willing to pay for a bigger house but I'm not going to be allowed to unless I have either the cash or the income to support it. So in some ways it's fair that local taxes are based on something that is likely to reflect ability to pay.

You are right in that you aren't using some of the services now, but that's partly to do with where you are in your life: there is a chunk of life around the same time we earn most when we are less likely to need care, for example. However, it can happen to anyone: that housefire you haven't yet had, for instance. Hopefully you never will, but you might. My parents had been over 50 years in their house before the fire brigade was needed. I've never had to call them to mine - yet.

Incidentally, Council Tax doesn't pay for the NHS. That's more likely to be from your National Insurance contributions. Hopefully you will continue not needing to use them, too - but you just have to read these boards to realise that illness or disability can strike anyone and it's not necessarily from poor lifestyle choices either.

I know lots of us are feeling sore at Council Tax rises and it's going to be very hard for some. I don't like that at all. However, none of us voted for a pandemic, but we've all had to muddle through and personally I'm grateful I'm still here, even if one the results of that includes a huge bill for society to repay over many years. It's a shock when that cost has to be met, which is what we're starting to see. It doesn't seem fair... but perhaps it's a relatively fair way to spread the costs of something that's hit us all, and some harder than others.

Sorry this is very long... a bit of thinking aloud! 

alt80

@enthusiasticsaver didn’t have someone massively into investing as left wing economically that’s def at odds mate. Also not buying the ‘safe portfolio’ stuff at the returns I recall you’re getting. Tbt I’m probably about as right wing as they come economically but left wing when it comes to immigration etc. 

@Cherryfudge No I don’t think it’s right at all. Ultimately I pay so much !!!!!! tax both as an individual and in company taxes it’s a joke. Would be rich if no tax not even joking. Just taking v basic res home tax if you fancy somewhere half decent to live - UKPLC’ll be there to !!!!!! you when you buy it, !!!!!! you whilst you live there and !!!!!! your kids when you die. Tbf I have got a fair bit back from tenants claiming LHA so poss I shouldn’t personally complain idk but whole thing seems skewed to me, always has.

Main reason is nothing to do with people in unfortunate positions - more that the government aren’t accountable and don’t provide value. Look up test and trace and what it cost the government for absolutely nothing. Lots of examples like that, if the government were a company they’d be !!!!!! 100%.

True re NHS / NI tbf I was thinking about adult care etc sorry.

Onebrokelady

enthusiasticsaver said:

Onebrokelady said:

enthusiasticsaver said:

Onebrokelady said:

Omg I've just got my council tax bill and it's gone up by £20 a month 🙀🙀🙀 I've phoned the council and spoke to a lady who says it's correct. She said it's only gone up by 5% bit I was only paying £156 last year, she kept going on about me getting a discount for the first two months of last year because DD was a student until June,then my bill was altered from June when she finished uni, that's apparently why I paid an extra payment in February or my monthly payments last year would have been more. I don't understand what she was trying to explain 😟

Actually I think you paid £1658 for 2020/2021? 9 months at £156 and 2 at £127 when presumably you got the single persons discount as your DD was away at Uni. Are you Band E? I am assuming your original council tax bill was worked out with a single person discount (25%) and then when your DD finished Uni they had to claim the discount back over the remainder of the year and they spread it over 9 months rather than 8 to keep the monthly payment lower.  Confusing way of doing it but I suppose the object was to stop the monthly payment going up considerably.  

Why do they claim the discount back,what's the point of giving it if they are going to claim it back or am i not understanding what you mean 

The discount is worked out in March  for the whole year on the assumption that you were the sole occupant for the whole year and the monthly payments  should reflect that.  When your DD finished Uni the period from then until 31 March then became fully chargeable (with no discount) which increased your council tax bill from June to March .  You should be able to go online to the council website and check you are paying the correct amount for a Band C house.  A simple way to work it out is to find the full amount of council tax for the year for last year, deduct the 25% for just the period you were entitled to it (so presumably 1.4.20 until 31.5.20?) so 2 months in other words and see how that compares to what you actually paid. 

Thanks, that makes sense, the lady I spoke to didn't really explain it that well. My DD checked for me and she says I was paying the right amount 😊

Onebrokelady

enthusiasticsaver said:

Onebrokelady said:

DD 1 says I should have been paying £169 last year for a band C house so that's why they took a payment in February to cover the shortfall 🤷‍♀️I'm still confused, my neighbour messaged me to say that £178 a month is the correct amount for our houses, but he lives on his own so I'm not sure why he is paying full rate  

Maybe he doesn't realise he can claim the single persons discount?  They don't give it automatically as far as I know. 

No it's not automatic, I will message him to make sure he knows about it