Five Year Fix, Five Year Plan

Merlin's_Beard

killerpeaty said:

Just caught up about... 5 months worth so this may be very out of date but I love board games. If you ever want a board game buddy I'm here for it.

As for your pension, I am confused as to whether you are salary sacrificing or not. As you say, you would have no issue if you have salary sacrifice. If this is into a different style of pension then you would be right, the net is what needs to be contributed with the 20% uplift then you claim an extension to your tax bands.

Most importantly, hows the cat doing?

Haha definitely not salary sacrifice. My workplace pension is a no-frills 5% me/3% them NEST affair with relief at source. Most of my contributions are net, and into a SIPP outside of that. 

I think at this point I'm jealous of those people with sal sac more for the simplicity than the NI benefits...!

Thanks for the clarification (and to everyone else, for the discussion and explanations).

And yes, I definitely need board game buddies! I still haven't done anything proactive about that so I'm glad to see that they're starting to just come to me  Give me all your recommendations as well (this is the most un-MSE request this board has ever seen...). I haven't even managed to unpack my games yet after moving (once I own a dining room table I will have somewhere to play).

Merlin's_Beard

Cat continues to be, at different times, fine, hangry because she's constantly on a diet, and doing her best aloof wild beast impression.

She's currently followed me into the living room and pretending to ignore my existence, except she's started purring since I got home and settled in one place 

LadyWithAPlan

On the HR tax payer issue - I spent 3 hours a few years ago getting thru to the right person at HMRC on this very issue. I had 2 tax people on the way through that telling me I was wrong but ... eventually the lady (wfh) was very clear and we went thru all the calculations - its all on a piece of paper  if you need me to dig it out as I cant remember off hand
However main points are
You only get HR tax relief on the amount over the £50,270 or whatever the threshold is that you earn. So if you make £60,270 you can put £10k (£60,270-50,270) into your pension (in total over the tax year) and only get charged BR tax as when you do your tax return you can add in your pension contributions
- any tax you have paid in PAYE already on that 10k HR will be paid back as a cheque that will be actually reduce you taxable income down to the BR level.

If one is self employed then there is a lump sump taken off your earnings so your income tax bill is reduced..


If you  can only put £5k in in the above scenario you will get  tax relief on the £5k  as a reduction on your due income tax (if you are PAYE) you get a cheque back

You can play with the figures by finding an online tax calculator that allows you to put different pension amounts in and work it. I found one  here - so add different pension amounts in and see how the tax you are due to pay over the year changes - try £5k, £10k etc 
https://www.mandg.com/pru/tools-calculators/income-tax-and-tax-relief/index.html


For ease I now just try to put into my pension (SIPP as I am s/e) any amounts over the BR threshold

If you become a really high earner as in over 100k then one should really do this as you lose your free tax threshold amount as you inch over that £100k - the actual rate of tax earning between 100-125k a year works out at 63% due to this.

KajiKita

Merlin's_Beard said:

Cat continues to be, at different times, fine, hangry because she's constantly on a diet, and doing her best aloof wild beast impression.

She's currently followed me into the living room and pretending to ignore my existence, except she's started purring since I got home and settled in one place 

The mercurial world of living with cat-beasts ….
Love that she is purring since you came home 😊❤️

KK

Merlin's_Beard

Thanks @LadyWithAPlan ! I'll have a play on that site.

@KajiKita - she would never admit that she likes me, I'm just a food dispenser with opposable thumbs, but... 

Merlin's_Beard

Unexpected day off with a covid positive test, because we have no specific covid policy I'll start to lose wages from Monday after I've already had time off. Can't be helped, but very annoying.

Very grateful that I'm living close to family though - added to my parents shopping list.

savingholmes

Sounds like you've had a bad run of it. Hope you feel better soon and your cat deigns to keep you company.

KajiKita

Oh bad luck! Hope it passes swiftly.

KK x

PS - Cat-Thing? This is the time to be kind to your hooman, they will *really* appreciate it! 

Merlin's_Beard

On second thoughts about 50% of the staff who were in one particular day last week are now covid positive (including 2/3 of the people in my role) so maybe it's better that I'm not one of the ones left standing even with the loss of earnings! 

Thankfully lots of podcasts to listen to, lots of paracetamol to take, and cat thing is keeping her distance from all the coughing (it's super rare that cats get COVID, but not impossible.) Sadly books are a bit too much to focus on for more than a chapter at a time.

KajiKita

Sending hugs and immunity boosting vibes!

KK