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50% of household market working hours have to be given up as tribute to the state.

There are those who insist we live in a low tax country.

20 thoughts on “Fun numbers”

  1. Bloke in North Dorset

    Bonus of only 1/6 of total salary if targets met is quite good for a management consultant, or was. When I was involved with them it was closer to 1/3.

  2. The Meissen Bison

    We remortgaged our home last year and the payments have gone up by £500 a month.

    No explanation for why they did that and the additional debt must be close to a quarter of the value of the flat.

  3. Consumption taxes. Future inheritance taxes. Council taxes. Specific fees for public services (passports, hospital car parks)… what is the total?

  4. The whole article seems to be a moan up by people who’ve chosen to get big mortgages, run two cars but feel poor because they can’t afford a villa in Greece and expect help to achieve the lifestyle they feel they deserve. Like the teacher with no shame about going to a food bank – expecting charity to top up her lifestyle.

  5. At the risk of sounding like the four Yorkshire men, when I were a lad and worked for Arthur Andersen (RIP) I got a bonus of 1/6 = £2,000. But then that was enough for me to buy a Ford Cortina Ghia – 3 years old but I thought I’d become royalty…

  6. Martin Near The M25

    I agree that UK taxes are too high but, as usual, the media seems to have found an example that doesn’t really evoke much sympathy.

    They’re simply not rich enough to afford what they think their entitlements are. One of them works for the public sector, who have heaped misery on all of us in innumerable ways.

    I hope they don’t come back.

  7. “anything I earn over £100,000 means our childcare allowance will be withdrawn. Most of my bonus would disappear because our free childcare allowance is withdrawn, but I’m still taxed on the extra £20,000 of my bonus – so that bonus just cost me £10,000, plus whatever we have lost in childcare support.”

    Shouldn’t there be an opportunity there for a pension contribution by salary sacrifice? Has he missed a trick?

  8. These are just the type of people who sit around the dinner table (eating food bank pasta) talking about how spending should be increased on schools / nhs / longer lockdowns. Now they moan about being taxed / inflated to pay for it

  9. So, the couple’s total tax almost exactly matches the cost of employing the wife as a civil servant.

    Sack the wife,abolish the tax, and the couple’s net income would be about the same as it is now. And, even better, the wife will have the time to care for her own children, and I wouldn’t need to pay for that childcare out of my own taxes.

    Milei-nomics 101.

  10. So, the couple’s total tax almost exactly matches the cost of employing the wife as a civil servant.

    It’s worse than that: don’t forget we’re also paying employers job tax and the equivalent of pension contributions. And probably plenty of other perks too. So sacking her would save us rather more than just the tax they are paying.

  11. I see Tim’s point, but also those of the commenters who don’t have much sympathy. If these were Americans, they’d quite likely be Democrats. They’d also be paying a lot of property tax and sales tax which just might get them to the 50% of earnings mark.

  12. The tax code is perverse at the £100k mark, for sure; but this is just a rant about how thanks to inflation and fiscal drag, £100k ain’t what it used to be.

  13. Over £100k he starts to lose his tax free personal allowance.

    He’ll pay £12,000 extra income tax and £400 NIC as well as losing his childcare.

    His bonus is worth very little.

  14. Like most poverty-pleaders they are over-leveraged. Downsize for a few years, which will allow time for the house equity to grow and allow you to put the otherwise over-taxed £20k bonus into a SIPP, and enjoy the extra spending headroom.

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