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So how much does the taxman steal off us?


DECROMAX
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A bit old but very scary. You wonder why we have no money and still be penalised by reduction in spending, higher taxes etc......

 

Of £100 earned, 11% is paid in National Insurance contributions (nothing but a euphemism for an additional tax on income) and 22% is paid in Income Tax (40% for higher rate taxpayers).

 

Of the remaining £67 of take-home pay let's say that over a week you spend it like this:

 

£15 for a meal out

£8 on cinema tickets

£16 in petrol

£3 put by for electricity

£7 on some cigarettes

£9 on a few drinks down the pub

£4 paid out in insurance premiums

£3 put aside for Council Tax

£2 put by for Road Tax

 

Sound reasonable?

 

Obviously 100% of the last two items are wholly tax.

 

Your electricity bill is subject to 5% 'Value Added Tax'. Your insurance policy is also subject to a 5% 'Insurance Premium Tax'. When you spend anything at the cinema and eating out, 17.5% is automatically added to the bill to be given to the government in VAT. While you're enjoying yourself, so is the Treasury.

 

35% of a well-deserved drink goes direct to our masters, and a recent AA campaign followed by the picketing of oil refineries serves to remind us that a staggering 85% of the money spent on petrol is snatched by the taxman. Eighty five per cent! But even that is not the worst. The state loves a smoker, of course, and from the money spent on cigarettes an astonishing 88.9% enters its coffers.

 

It brings tears to the eyes. Altogether, a full £29.91 of that week's expenses goes straight to the taxman.

 

Of the £100 earned, £62.91 will have been paid to the government in tax.

 

At the end of the day, all you will have to show for it is £37.09 in goods and services. A higher-rate taxpayer will retain a miserly £29.09! And that ignores the additional £12.80 your employer will have had to pay to the government.

 

The average worker paid £6.63 an hour in tax to the Treasury in the 2007/8 tax year last year - more than the minimum wage and 5.6 per cent more than a year ago. The figures, calculated by The Daily Telegraph, and published by them on 22 March 2008 are taken from documents published by the Treasury at the time of the 2008 Budget statement.

 

Presuming each of the 31.6 million taxpayers in the country works an eight-hour day, and takes the standard time off for holiday, they contributed on average £6.63 for every hour that they worked. In the 2006/7, 31.2 million taxpayers contributed £6.28 each.

 

Breakdown of £6.63 tax paid by average workers each hour for 07/08 tax year.

Income tax £3.57

VAT £1.37

Alcohol and tobacco duty £0.28

Inheritance Tax £0.07

Council Tax £0.40

National Insurance £0.70

Stamp Duty £0.24

Capital Gains Tax £0.08

Fuel Duty £0.42

Vehicle Excise Duty £0.10

Others (e.g. air tax) £0.40

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http://www.adamsmith.org/tax-freedom-day/

 

Under our new 'socialist' government, it will have taken us 3 days longer this year to be tax free so to speak!

 

What rickety old bridge fails to mention is why it's taking 3 days longer, but thanks to the article she linked the answer is given:

 

Dr Madsen Pirie, President of the Adam Smith Institute identified the linkage between the lateness of Tax Freedom Day and the government’s attempt to tackle the deficit and UK debt:

 

“The last government left an appalling legacy. Its reckless spending has driven Britain into record levels of debt that threaten the lives and happiness of future generations. Bringing down that debt has to be an absolutely urgent priority. However it isn’t enough to merely cut spending. We need targeted tax cuts to encourage economic growth.”

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THe tories love VAT, didnt they invent it? They certainly always put it up.

 

The Tories always inherit a mess to sort out, and then the stupid public re-elect Labour to mess the country up again. In 1997 Labour inherited a dream economy and here we are 14 years later having to repair the damage done by Labour again.

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The Tories always inherit a mess to sort out, and then the stupid public re-elect Labour to mess the country up again. In 1997 Labour inherited a dream economy and here we are 14 years later having to repair the damage done by Labour again.

 

What was that? Im nodding off.

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I hate to trot out the old scandinavian line, but the swedes have a ludicrous rate of taxation and they seem to be happier than we are. I'm self employed, and my private pension (with which I could and should have paid off my mortgage) is worth less in pounds sterling now than when I ploughed 4 solid years worth of total earnings into it 18 years ago. I would rather pay more tax and not have to be a financial expert in order to get a decent pension and publicly funded healthcare than the mess we have now.

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What was that? Im nodding off.

 

Well before you nod off, think yourself lucky we have a Conservative coalition making brilliant cuts to the public sector. If Labour had got in again they would have held back just like in America which would put up the rate we pay on govt issued gilts and then the unions (who fund Labour) would've seen to it that cuts were watered down and country would have gone down the pan and we'd have all been taxed to the max.

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my private pension (with which I could and should have paid off my mortgage) is worth less in pounds sterling now than when I ploughed 4 solid years worth of total earnings into it 18 years ago.

 

Equities or corporate bonds?

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Well before you nod off, think yourself lucky we have a Conservative coalition making brilliant cuts to the public sector. If Labour had got in again they would have held back just like in America which would put up the rate we pay on govt issued gilts and then the unions (who fund Labour) would've seen to it that cuts were watered down and country would have gone down the pan and we'd have all been taxed to the max.

 

Nope, missed that, I'm asleep now.

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The Tories always inherit a mess to sort out, and then the stupid public re-elect Labour to mess the country up again. In 1997 Labour inherited a dream economy and here we are 14 years later having to repair the damage done by Labour again.

 

Dream Economy?????? I'll have some of whatever your on. Ayatollah Maggie her henchmen ruined virtually every part of this country. Black Wednesday, mines shut down just fore an political whim. Schools, hospitals police starved of funding. Not that the smiling assasin Blair was any better. Just remember.

 

POLITICS..... POLY means many and tics are bloodsuckers. There all the same.

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I hate to trot out the old scandinavian line, but the swedes have a ludicrous rate of taxation and they seem to be happier than we are. I'm self employed, and my private pension (with which I could and should have paid off my mortgage) is worth less in pounds sterling now than when I ploughed 4 solid years worth of total earnings into it 18 years ago. I would rather pay more tax and not have to be a financial expert in order to get a decent pension and publicly funded healthcare than the mess we have now.

Thats Socialisim working.

Of course no one likes paying tax,but if you get a good interstructure,good schools,good transport system and pensions that are worth having,then surely having high taxes is better than the Condem mess we have now?

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Gents, you think you have it bad, try most of Europe.

Most Belgians pay this:

 

50% taxrate on almost everything.

Additional 15% social security

21.5% vat

12.5% stamp duty

 

You get some good tax breaks for things like kids and mortgage payments, but trust me in the UK you take home a lot more than most of the continent.

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Dream Economy?????? I'll have some of whatever your on. Ayatollah Maggie her henchmen ruined virtually every part of this country. Black Wednesday, mines shut down just fore an political whim. Schools, hospitals police starved of funding. Not that the smiling assasin Blair was any better. Just remember.

 

POLITICS..... POLY means many and tics are bloodsuckers. There all the same.

 

Whats that got to do with what Labour picked up in 1997. The fact is they inherited a VERY good economy.......they ****ed it up!!!

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On a brighter note I see the Dow is up 2.26% today. Also good to see Warren Buffet investing heavily in Bank of America....

 

Hadn't seen that. Did you know that if you'd invested 10k with him when he started trading all those years ago and left him to keep reinvesting it you'd be worth over 40 mill now!!!

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