How ever much I hate the fact I often complain that I have to hand over about £500 a month in tax plus NI, I’m pretty glad I don’t have Simon Cowell’s tax bill. According to the Times Online he pays more than £21.7m per year in income tax! Mind you I wouldn’t mind his income of over £54.25m per year!
And just how is it that he pays the same rate of tax as I do?
I’ve never resented paying tax if that means free and good education for our children, a reliable police force and NHS etc but it seems to me these days that a lot of the money goes towards keeping lazy people on benefits their entire lives.
One thing I can’t stand though is the rich & famous who move abroad purely to avoid paying tax. I’m sure they were happy enough to use state schools, the NHS and the rest before they were famous so why deny others the same now?
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with paying a higher rate tax of 40% – as I do myself. In fact, I would be happy to pay more tax. Like Sharon, I think we should contribute to society. If I remember correctly, you are still able to save over £1,000 a month – an amount most people could never hope to. Simon Cowell worked hard to earn what he does.
I recently was speaking to a friend about paying tax and I felt very uncomfortable afterwards because she was self-employed as a contractor, and has used every tax loophole in the book to avoid paying tax, including have her mum as her company secretary, who she paid an amount up to the lower tax bracket and then her mum gave it back to her. This really angered me, I know there are ways to minimise tax but I don’t think you should take it too far.
Of course, there are people scrounging off the system, but at the end of the day, I wouldn’t swap my life with theirs and I wouldn’t like to live in a country like the US which doesn’t even have healthcare for everyone.
That issue is subject to endless debate, particularly in America. Generally speaking lower tax rates mean higher revenues. But of course there are a gazillion ways to spin the numbers.
In India, hardly anyone pays tax and it shows in the whole infrastructure. You only pay tax if you earn over about £1000 per annum, which is rare for most people. Over that and you should declare your own income, which again is rare. It’s only the very rich who can’t get away with it, but they still try! Occasionally there is a story of a Bollywood star found with a locker full of money and gold and deeds for posh houses… they get sent to prison for a few days then pay to get out!!!
We are lucky here in every way, if you look at some countries systems. It could be better but most things could.
****
I hope you don’t mind me asking but I would love to be able to subscribe to your comments. There is a plugin you can download here
I would be very grateful… I’d hate to miss out x
I also don’t mind paying taxes as long as I see them working for me and not padding pockets of fat cats.
And if I made his money, I ALSO wouldn’t want to be paying a higher tax rate just because I made more cash (am feeling this now, like I’m getting screwed for being good at my job)
Unfortunately it goes hand in hand with being a high earner, and they’ve got to draw the line seomwhere. I try not to look at the tax part of my paycheque as it can make me sick! But then I see that a lot of those taxes are put to good use, and it feels a little better..
Sharon – those are great points! Whenever I moan I think about the fact if I dial 999 someone will come and it makes me feel better.
My Eco Self – great points! I save about £600 a month in income, but only by being very frugal like sticking to £15 a week on groceries (most often £13 a week) not going out with friends etc. I have many friends who earn more, or have double the income (+) because they have a partner, but they only save £100 or so a month. I used to be like that!
I agree very much re the healthcare!
Emma I tried and it won’t work. Will try again soon!
FB- so sorry you are having a hard time at work!
FGal – I think we are very alike!
Oh dear, I just googled it and picked the first one, didn’t test it because I don’t use wordpress, try looking on your wordpress dashboard/home or googling again….
I didn’t even realise at first, then I wondered why you were ignoring me!!
and with my memory I can never remember which posts I left comments on, so I have to trawl back over the archives!
Can you send the link to apieceofwood if you find one? I asked her too. Actually My Life Makeover has it on her blog, maybe she could help!
Thanks for trying x