If you can manage financially - would you pay more tax, for better public services?

Magsymoo

The problem in this country is that people want first class public services, NHS, education, Social Care etc but don’t want to pay for them. We have been brainwashed by much of the media for many years to believe that tax is a bad thing to be avoided or evaded as much as possible. Hence the hated figure of the “taxman”.
Paying tax allows us to be a civilised country - to each according to his needs, from each according to his means.

Well said!

Chocolatelovinggran

Gin, the current rate for Inheritance Tax will include me, as a single woman, and my modest semi in Kent. I am not making any statements about the need/ morality of this tax, but want to be clear that the threshold is not " pretty high". In parts of the South East, and areas of Dorset, the Cotswolds ( I could go on ) nearly everyone who owns a house will be eligible.

There are some allowances if the bulk of the estate left is in one property.

They can start by making car drivers pay tax per mile. Cars and lorries are the reason for the bad state of our roads. Road tax, presently is emissions tax, should not be a universal amount, it should be dependent on road use and vehicle weight, including tractors

Inheritance tax should be enforced but the limit before tax should be raised a bit, enough to cover a nominal amount of savings plus a moderate home

LottieLouise

GROWSTUFF

Of course our taxes go towards paying for people who do not work or don't want to work and these aare mainly immigrants who are being housed in hotels etc.. You must be living in cloud cuckoo land if you think they don't. The last time I tried to get a GP appointment was just after Covid when I asked for a GP visit and could not get one so had to ring for an ambulance who refused to take me to hospital as they said I was not ill enough. I rang for a taxi and got to A & E and nearly collapsed and was diagnosed with double pneumonia and kept in hospital for a week. It is now 2024 and I have not been able to get a GP appointment since neither has a few of my friends also in their 80's and no, I cannot claim low income because I have a full state pension and a small private pension and you cannot claim for low income when the benefits calculator states you are not on a low income, if I was on a low income I would not be paying tax.

I can assure you that there are far far more home grown Brits on benefits than “foreigners” and asylum seekers have no recourse to public funds nor any right to work until after their case is processed and they’ve been granted leave to remain.

Spreading misinformation such as this helps no situation.

Grandma70s

Most European countries have higher tax rates than the U.K. - and better services. In Denmark it’s nearly 56%.

This

Joseann

^Stamp Duty should go way up, Inheritance should be zero^.
I agree with most of your list Norah, but not that stamp duty should go way up. Particularly not for the many downsizers, maybe on this thread, whose sale of a large property would free up housing for families. They should be exempt.
And I agree with Chocolatelovinggran that the Inheritance Tax threshold is distorted by the expensive location in which you might live.

Yes I agree about Inheritance tax,, I live in a small house in the SE and it will be liable for a large chunk of tax.. which apparently has to be paid before probate can be granted, so I'm worried about the liability for my 2 executors who are both quite young.. it seems an unfair tax

Stamp Duty should go way up, Inheritance should be zero.
I agree with most of your list Norah, but not that stamp duty should go way up. Particularly not for the many downsizers, maybe on this thread, whose sale of a large property would free up housing for families. They should be exempt.
And I agree with Chocolatelovinggran that the Inheritance Tax threshold is distorted by the expensive location in which you might live.

Gin, the current rate for Inheritance Tax will include me, as a single woman, and my modest semi in Kent. I am not making any statements about the need/ morality of this tax, but want to be clear that the threshold is not " pretty high". In parts of the South East, and areas of Dorset, the Cotswolds ( I could go on ) nearly everyone who owns a house will be eligible.

It’s easy to say “soak the rich” but it’s difficult to get much more because the wealth is mostly tied up in businesses and transferred to the family through companies and partnerships.

To increase revenue changes need to made right down to average wage level, the ultra wealthy can buy their way into any country they want and pay tax overseas. I have a brother and sister living in the US they are much better off

I do agree that the “ non dom” status should be stopped but many will simply move overseas and return as visitors

My gripe is with indirect taxes. Having lived in the country where a car is essential - unreliable, expensive public transport if it exists- yet things like petrol tax bite deep. If income tax was raised and all those silly indirect taxes were abolished, life would be simpler. One would need a guarantee of “pots” for NHS, schools, .potholes or whatever…

My beef has always been with council tax which is a complete scam. Like VAT its regressive because its not based on income. Its possible for a single pensioner to be paying 75% or what a household with 2/3 incomes coming in. How can that be fair?

It isnt.

Councils are very wasteful with resources and always spending on vanity projects - like works of art by obscure artists that no one knows. Or parades and festivals for minority groups. Labour councils are renouned for that sort of profligacy.

A question of trust. I don’t. So I would give more directly to a charitable cause of my choosing and/ or help members of my own family doing it tough.

LottieLouise

GROWSTUFF

Of course our taxes go towards paying for people who do not work or don't want to work and these aare mainly immigrants who are being housed in hotels etc.. You must be living in cloud cuckoo land if you think they don't. The last time I tried to get a GP appointment was just after Covid when I asked for a GP visit and could not get one so had to ring for an ambulance who refused to take me to hospital as they said I was not ill enough. I rang for a taxi and got to A & E and nearly collapsed and was diagnosed with double pneumonia and kept in hospital for a week. It is now 2024 and I have not been able to get a GP appointment since neither has a few of my friends also in their 80's and no, I cannot claim low income because I have a full state pension and a small private pension and you cannot claim for low income when the benefits calculator states you are not on a low income, if I was on a low income I would not be paying tax.

I can't get a GP appointment, but it's nothing at all to do with immigrants, as there aren't many where I live. It's to do with GPs being burnt out and too many unrealistic government demands.

LottieLouise

GIN .... The NHS does not work because we are overloaded with people who have never contributed into the system, same with taxes, immigrants come to this country in boatloads expecting the streets of London to be paved in gold, the UK is a mess and an easy target for scroungers. No, I do not blame the immigrants but I do blame the government for allowing immigrants to claim money that they have never earned, they just come here for handouts. Where are the women and children on these rubber boats, they are all young men and in years to come, this will not be the UK we know, to be honest, it is not the UK we know now. Gangs with knives and guns and running riot and the police working with one hand tied behind their backs.

No idea where you live, but if that's your experience of your neighbourhood, I'd move if I were you.

PS. Sorry, maybe you really do live in downtown Chicago.

maddyone

Well I don’t pay tax on cigarettes but millions of people do. And millions of people pay all the taxes I mentioned. Just because you don’t doesn’t mean others don’t.

I'm well aware of that, but do some maths.

A significant number don't pay most of those taxes because they don't have the disposable income to buy a new car or fly.

Norah I agree with you that the current council tax needs sorting out. The idea is to provide some level of local democracy with local people deciding how much they want to spend on certain services and local people being accountable, but it doesn't work like that.

Council tax is paid to central government, which then uses various formulae to hand the money back. The amount local government receives from central government has been slashed over the last 14 years.

If it's assumed that poorer people tend to live in smaller homes,the banding system means that people in less valuable homes pay more as a percentage of their income than richer people because the bands are capped. It's actually just another form of central taxation, but unlike income tax isn't progressive.

Council tax is by far my biggest tax, but I don't even receive a proportionate amount of it back because I live in a wealthy area and our council tax is redistributed to poorer boroughs.

Well I don’t pay tax on cigarettes but millions of people do. And millions of people pay all the taxes I mentioned. Just because you don’t doesn’t mean others don’t.

maddyone

We’re already paying higher taxes than ever before (income tax, road tax, purchase tax on new cars, VAT, council tax, taxes on alcohol and cigarettes, air duty, inheritance tax, and probably others I’ve forgotten) so why is the massive amount of tax we all pay not enough?

I don't pay road tax, purchase tax on new cars, taxes on alcohol and cigarettes, air duty or inheritance tax and many millions of people are in the same situation.

Oh yes, stamp duty, television licence, and all the taxes businesses pay. It’s all billions and apparently despite this, it’s not enough. Why?

We’re already paying higher taxes than ever before (income tax, road tax, purchase tax on new cars, VAT, council tax, taxes on alcohol and cigarettes, air duty, inheritance tax, and probably others I’ve forgotten) so why is the massive amount of tax we all pay not enough?

No because they wouldn't be.

No I would not pay any more tax, I am in my late 70s and still paying 40%. There is no political party I would trust to spend the money in the right way.

What proportion of the population have £5 million to leave in their estate? Current exemptions from Inheritance Tax is pretty high already.

Yes, No, and Depends.

My husband pays in the additional tax rate, I'd like to see that capped at £200K and an additional rate of 60% on earnings above £200K. Aimed at the rich people. The actually wealthy people really could pay more.

We all pay VAT, Council tax. VAT could be adjusted higher and the mess of Council taxes could be sorted, in my opinion.

Some pay alcohol and tobacco taxes. Surely those could go up.

Stamp Duty should go way up, Inheritance should be zero, Capital Gains could go up, Road tax and TV license silly, why bother? Insurance premium taxes, Corporate taxes, business taxes - surely some taxes could be adjusted up. If a tax goes up I think ring fencing for worthwhile govt spending would be good.

No No No to inheritance tax below £5 million (as taxes have been paid at every step already). Inheritance tax is a horrible tax.

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