Rachel Reeves

Over my lifetime the average person is better off although many would dispute that. The number of benefits and people on benefits has vastly increased in that time period.

The definition of poor has expanded from say the 1960's to today, where someone is poor even if they have a mobile phone and 2 week foreign holiday.

However I think we are heading for a major fall. Politicians and the public don't want to consider the possibility that the good times are coming to an end.

One of the stats not been quoted is job vacancies. In the last 3 years the BBC has reported the number of vacancies has dropped every month.

We have a huge amount of debt and taxation at record levels. At some point we will have to make cuts, where and by how much is up to Parliament to sort out. However my point is that people may have to get use to not doing as well as they have in the past.

The baby boomer generation may well be the peak.

And yet every baby boomer on here still isn’t happy.
 
Over my lifetime the average person is better off although many would dispute that. The number of benefits and people on benefits has vastly increased in that time period.

The definition of poor has expanded from say the 1960's to today, where someone is poor even if they have a mobile phone and 2 week foreign holiday.

However I think we are heading for a major fall. Politicians and the public don't want to consider the possibility that the good times are coming to an end.

One of the stats not been quoted is job vacancies. In the last 3 years the BBC has reported the number of vacancies has dropped every month.

We have a huge amount of debt and taxation at record levels. At some point we will have to make cuts, where and by how much is up to Parliament to sort out. However my point is that people may have to get use to not doing as well as they have in the past.

The baby boomer generation may well be the peak.
Tbf a mobile phone is essential these days. You need one to apply for jobs and work. You even need one on benefits because it’s mostly online.

Travel became more affordable but the cost of living problems and poor economy management means it’s going to become beyond a lot more people.
 
Tbf a mobile phone is essential these days. You need one to apply for jobs and work. You even need one on benefits because it’s mostly online.

Travel became more affordable but the cost of living problems and poor economy management means it’s going to become beyond a lot more people.
The issue is becoming food and energy bills more than anything else. It's Europe Wide, possibly world wide too.
 
Surely you don't run a small business to save tax do you? What's the incentive? Well you are your own boss, surely that's the main advantage.

Surely the biggest issue for any small business trying to expand, which you haven't mentioned, is the VAT threshold that kicks in at £90k p.a. If a business has c £80k annual income/revenue it is rarely worthwhile expanding as the VAT will add 20% to costs, potentially making the business uncompetitive.

There's this idea you are your own boss. You aren't - you are an unpaid tax collector.

I run a business to provide - I'll never be a millionaire doing what I do. But small business owners should be helped and incentivised. Not punished for wanting to push on.
 
Tbf a mobile phone is essential these days. You need one to apply for jobs and work. You even need one on benefits because it’s mostly online.

Travel became more affordable but the cost of living problems and poor economy management means it’s going to become beyond a lot more people.
Some things are actually cheaper now some things more expensive.

Credit is far more widely available then say the 1970's so it's not just the government living on tick but there is bound to be a credit crunch at some point which will really impact those who are currently living beyond their means.

Where is it written that the next generation will always do better than the previous? For centuries that has not been true it probably is only true of this country post WW2.

I hope I am wrong of course.
 
I read in his article that the top 10% pay 75% of the tax take. Irrelevant of your feelings about the super rich that is a fact that is unarguable and every one of these super rich that leaves means 1000s of minions will have to pick up the loss. Alongside any businesses who go with them. Wastage and people forever taking is the problem. 2TK should have stuck to his benefits cull but bottled it because his MPs wanted to protect their votes. Alongside the minor issue of ditching the Rwanda scheme and bibby stockholm. This is a small figure primarily compared to welfare ATM but secondary will prove to be very expensive as they will become part of the welfare take.
Basically don’t kill the goose who lays the golden egg.

If you think the top 10% are the super rich, you’re starting your argument on completely flawed ground.

Someone earning £65k a year is in the top 10% - I think we can all agree that is not the super rich.
 
Where are you getting that from? 65k isn't much.
2024 numbers from the Office for National Statistics.

It is quite shocking that a salary that you probably couldn’t raise a family on (certainly in London) leaves you in the top 10% of earners in the country.

Wage stagnation is a huge part of the problem.
 
It's not just the billionaire aspect. It's how lower Middle Britain gets f***** to.

I run a small business - employ 4 people.

So to take out £50k (and keep to basic rates) this happens.

Company
Profit before drawings - £60k
Salary - £12.5k (tax deductible - comes off the profit)
Net Profit - £47.5k
Tax due - £9k


Personal
Salary -£12.5k
Dividends -£37.5k
Total income -£50k
Tax due -£3.2k
Take home pay -£46.8k

So my combined tax bill for "earning" £60k is £12.2k and my take home is £47.8k

Someone earning £60k employed can expect to pay £11.4k tax and £3.2k NI and take home £45.4k

So I get all the shite of running my own business for an extra £2.5k.

But what happens if I want to boost my profits and earn another £10k profit in the company I take out as a dividend. If I make over £50k of profit, then my Corporation Tax is 26.5% (Marginal Rate) up to £250,000

Out of that I will lose - 26.5% Corp Tax (Marginal Rate as I'm now above the £50k small profits)
Dividend tax - 34%

so 59.5% of the extra goes to the tax man,

Get £10k as a bonus employed

40% tax
2% National Insurance
42% goes to the tax man.

So where exactly is the incentive to run a business. I get no paternity leave, sick pay. Employees (who I pay well and look after) are about to get more rights from day 1. This won't f*** the big employers, it will f*** us smaller ones.

This is where the Government plain does not understand - small business and big business are not the same.
Excellent post. You are right, this government does not understand the nuances of life. It thinks all pensioners spend their WFA on cruises, all farmers are multi- millionaires; it’s student politics with actual power…an extremely dangerous situation for those that are affected.
 
Terrible. Apparently I'm rich now. Quite ludicrous. However, it's more expensive here.
I think a lot of people feel like that, myself included.

It's really important with this wealth tax stuff building momentum that the deliberate conflation of high or above average earning workers with the actual asset-owning rich is not successful.

I'm not aware of any serious wealth tax advocates who thinks workers on £80k a year should be paying more tax - that is not at all the target.
 
I think a lot of people feel like that, myself included.

It's really important with this wealth tax stuff building momentum that the deliberate conflation of high or above average earning workers with the actual asset-owning rich is not successful.

I'm not aware of any serious wealth tax advocates who thinks workers on £80k a year should be paying more tax - that is not at all the target.

Yep the whole thing is ridiculous.

The country's had the stuffing knocked out of it.
 
I think a lot of people feel like that, myself included.

It's really important with this wealth tax stuff building momentum that the deliberate conflation of high or above average earning workers with the actual asset-owning rich is not successful.

I'm not aware of any serious wealth tax advocates who thinks workers on £80k a year should be paying more tax - that is not at all the target.
I can't remember how much tax I pay a week but it's at least three or four hundred. It's already unsustainable. I probably don't even end up with twice as much as someone on minimum wage.
 
I can't remember how much tax I pay a week but it's at least three or four hundred. It's already unsustainable. I probably don't even end up with twice as much as someone on minimum wage.
The whole tax system is completely absurd, by design of course.

The 40% band, which was meant to capture 'high earners' is still starting from £50k - in the 90s only 1 in 20 workers were earning that much, it's now 1 in 6.

There is then no higher band until you get to £125k. So someone earning £120k a year is taxed at the same rate as someone earning £52k a year.
 
Where are you getting that from? 65k isn't much.
People can earn big sums and waste their dough,the wealthy are those whoinvest and budget properly. 65K isn't much my boy is on twice that and avoids a lot of tax by paying into an avc.
 
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The whole tax system is completely absurd, by design of course.

The 40% band, which was meant to capture 'high earners' is still starting from £50k - in the 90s only 1 in 20 workers were earning that much, it's now 1 in 6.

There is then no higher band until you get to £125k. So someone earning £120k a year is taxed at the same rate as someone earning £52k a year.

This isn’t exactly true as you start losing your personal allowance once you start earning over £100k.

You then have the extra absurdity where there’s an effective tax rate of 60% between that and £125k as you have to pay back 20% as well as pay an extra 40% on every £ earned above £100k.

Then there’s the extra extra absurdity of losing all childcare entitlement (about £8k a year) once you earn £100k.

It’s an extremely ill thought out system.
 
This isn’t exactly true as you start losing your personal allowance once you start earning over £100k.

You then have the extra absurdity where there’s an effective tax rate of 60% between that and £125k as you have to pay back 20% as well as pay an extra 40% on every £ earned above £100k.

Then there’s the extra extra absurdity of losing all childcare entitlement (about £8k a year) once you earn £100k.

It’s an extremely ill thought out system.
Avc avoid tax and keep your threshold intact!
 

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