How much to live on

Plasticman

Nebulous2 said:

LL_USS said:

Hope everyone has had a good weekend. 

Can't wait  to see the outcome of budget on 26 Nov. 2% income tax rise predicted. I am wondering what are the ways to soften the impact of such a rise. I still have saving leftover each month - I could put more into volunteer contribution to pension but this would only reduce the absolute amount. It could be years till there's any reduction back again to the current rates....

There is always lots of speculation about budgets. Predictions I have seen are +2% on Income tax and -2% on national insurance, which balances out for people in work who are below state pension age, but not for those who live off unearned income. 

On an unrelated note, I've made my 30 Santander payments, by splitting shops, and paying for items we would normally use a different method to pay for.

I paid for individual onions in Tesco 16,17,17 and 19 pence. The young member of staff wandered over. "Are you paying for each of these onions separately?"  Me "Yes - I have a new bank account, which will pay me if I make 30 debit card payments." "Cool, I'd do the same myself, I just wondered what you were doing." 

I've avoided the speculation so far but the income tax / NI suggestion is certainly getting well established! If it happens then I hope it will be accompanied by a higher personal allowance for those over state pension age. That would be a win for the government as there is a lot of negativity about people who only get the basic state pension getting drawn into paying tax. It also seems very unfair to hike income tax on pensioners with low incomes and little opportunity to increase them.

Albermarle

LL_USS said:

Hope everyone has had a good weekend. 

Can't wait  to see the outcome of budget on 26 Nov. 2% income tax rise predicted. I am wondering what are the ways to soften the impact of such a rise. I still have saving leftover each month - I could put more into volunteer contribution to pension but this would only reduce the absolute amount. It could be years till there's any reduction back again to the current rates....

I read many years ago ( I think in the Sunday Telegraph) that due to the changing age profile of the population in the UK, ( and many other Western countries) it would be necessary to regularly increase tax on the static number of working age people, to pay for the increasing proportion of older people, needing pensions, healthcare, social care etc.
OK there are many other factors at play, but this underlying demographic change means it is unlikely that the overall tax burden will ever go into reverse, although no doubt there will be some tinkering around the edges.