How else can services be paid for, unless you believe in paying directly - for your health provision, education, security, government etc.
What about the people at the other end who take take take and don't pay a bean or at the other end the energy companies etc just taking the piss. To a certain extent I think look after number one and your family. Especially now as you can get old end up in a carehome have to sell your house to pay for the privilege while someone in another bed who got nothing to sell gets it state funded. So look after yourself and family.
Given my in-laws are both in a care home spending £12k a month having sold their home you’d think I may have some commonality with your sentiment but I absolutely don’t. Yes, there may be people from all walks of life and privilege that exploit systems or commit crimes for their own benefit. But I’d never be happy being one of them. Sadly there are too many selfish people who won’t help anyone else because they are too busy helping themselves.
Worked all my life still continue to do so paid and still pay more than my fair share of taxes. This also happened to my neighbour who got dementia ended up having to sell a house she wanted to pass on to her family and was left with hardly anything. Some private carehome bosses probably also avoiding as much tax as possible probably rub their hands at things like that. Gas up 12% leccy 8% inflation up... I'll pay my fair share of taxes and look after number 1.
I expect nothing less from you. You haven’t paid more than your fair share though, you’ve paid what was due. Unless you’ve approached HMRC and voluntarily gifted them money?
If you know ‘lots’ of farmers in one area then I’d wager their farms aren’t 200 acres each, I’d wager they probably aren’t all worth millions - and that they are completely unaffected by this legislation. The average farmer doesn’t own the average sized farm. It is skewed at the top end - just like all wealth of any kind is distributed. The fact so many normal working folk are falling for the rhetoric spouted on this is concerning, it really is.
Services still get paid for as you're still paying taxes obviously. The odd cash job on a weekend was a nice little earner.
I'm not even going to rise to it. Like to know what you do as you love getting on your high horse constantly.
He's right though, you've either paid tax or not. The 'more than your fair share bit' makes no sense and makes you sound a bit entitled.
I've always agreed with this sentiment and 'paying what is due'. Recently however I've started finding legal ways to avoid paying tax for the first time as I don't believe our current tax system is fair or fit for purpose - after all it's the highest tax burden the countries ever had. I fall into the absurd tax bracket where my rate on earnings is 68%. I also lose free childcare allowance at what I earn, meaning my de facto tax rate on extra earnings is over 100%. This is before my £3,500 annual council tax bill, VAT on purchases, tax my company pays on my earnings, tax on the profits I and my team generate for my company, donations to charities because our government is failing and donations to the Red Cross cause my tax money is funding a genocide. I'm all for giving back and helping others, but the tax system needs to be overhauled so it doesn't stunt aspiration. At the moment my take home is capped because if I earn more I lose money in real terms.
I don't think anyone pays more than their fair share. The huge majority are on PAYE and pay exactly the right amount. The only people that don't pay exactly the right amount are those that legally exploit loopholes and those that illegally fail to declare income or otherwise flout the system.
Very different situation to not paying what you must though. And it’s always worth remembering that being in that situation basically means you’re doing better than 99% of folk. Agree it needs a review though.
I agree it's poorly handled but it's a nice problem to have in the grand scheme of things. Plus you can solve it by slamming some extra cash in your pension.
But you're also comfortable. Which sadly many many millions can't even aspire to. If we look at aspiration... You could aspire to be a little bit richer, buy something nicer, go somewhere nicer, upgrade something etc. There are people who have aspirations to feed their child... And incredibly, not be able to manage it to the degree they'd like. That's not a criticism of you by the way, its the manifestation of austerity and insanity ideological government for 14 years where we have the resulting quadfecta (sic) of high taxation, high debt, destroyed public services and high levels of poverty. Edit: By the way, I agree re the effective 68% tax rate which has been created by fudges over time, though given personal allowance rates tail off at around 100-120k, its still a very privileged position in comparison to the majority of the UK population.
Although the people most at risk of it are the people most against measures to prevent it (in Western countries anyway).