BoxRec

You are not the only ones that pay it, we also pay it here.

First off, the names for your taxes over there are pretty dodgey...

Value Added Tax? What the fornicate?

Council Tax? What the hell does that mean?

Anyways, if you're renting, you shouldn't have to pay "house" tax... The owner of the place where you live should be paying it.

Tantum wrote:First off, the names for your taxes over there are pretty dodgey...

Value Added Tax? What the fornicate?

Council Tax? What the hell does that mean?

Anyways, if you're renting, you shouldn't have to pay "house" tax... The owner of the place where you live should be paying it.

Value added tax is tax without the value! Seriously I don't know what it's for and how it differs from other taxes.

Council tax is "supposed" to pay for services from your local area including (I think) police, fire, ambulance (I could be wrong on these) and things like paving, resurfacing roads now and again, street cleaning, refuse collectors/dustbin men etc.

I am sure we pay too much tax in this country!

Just to add to the righteous indignation: I had last Thursday off, and went to pick my mate up for a day on the piss. Literally, we got to my car, when a guy started walking up my mate's drive. He was a Baliff.

Now, my mate pays his council tax at the start of the financial year, in full every year. In cash, nonetheless. I try not to ask what he does for a living, but there you go. But he had a hairy-arsed geezer at his door asking where his tax was. One phone call later, and my local council confirm that it was, as the guy knew, a clerical error. Load of shite. There were no letters sent or anything.

Is it possible to sell your vote on Ebay? Because I'm open to offers, I tell you. Not that it matters in the Tory heartland that I live in........

Council Tax is collected by your Council and goes some way towards funding them. The rest comes from central government funding. In theory the system could work well. In practice all that happens is councils which have their shit together (the few that do) can charge a low Council tax - Ken and Chelsea is a prime exmaple, as James said.


The blackboards story is not apocryphal. Straight from the horse's mouth (well, the wife's. Teacher).

Dan, you SHOULD get onto your council about broadband in Exeter. It's one of the things that a lot of councils are measured on, certainly in the e-government side of things. The more noise you make, the more pressure they put on BT.


As an aside I live in Wandsworth and they're a pretty decent Council...

VAT, I think, is where a certian percentage is added to prices. Ie in Denmark a products value is added 25% in tax.

We pay 33,4% in council tax of our basic income and then if you own a house/flat you will pay 1,2% of the value in tax.

Freiheit wrote:VAT, I think, is where a certian percentage is added to prices. Ie in Denmark a products value is added 25% in tax.

We pay 33,4% in council tax of our basic income and then if you own a house/flat you will pay 1,2% of the value in tax.

Freiheit, that 33.4 % must be income tax.......

you guys are taxed heavily in Denmark by the sound of things....

Typical deductions in the UK (up to £40k income per annum) are about 9% national insurance and 22% tax.

once you earn over £40000 you get taxed 40% on every extra £1......

Tantum wrote:First off, the names for your taxes over there are pretty dodgey...

Value Added Tax? What the fornicate?

Council Tax? What the hell does that mean?

Anyways, if you're renting, you shouldn't have to pay "house" tax... The owner of the place where you live should be paying it.

Yes, but then the owners would just add the cost on. Sometimes landlords do pay it, but it's usually on shitty tower block type properties.

knockout wrote:

Freiheit wrote:VAT, I think, is where a certian percentage is added to prices. Ie in Denmark a products value is added 25% in tax.

We pay 33,4% in council tax of our basic income and then if you own a house/flat you will pay 1,2% of the value in tax.

Freiheit, that 33.4 % must be income tax.......

you guys are taxed heavily in Denmark by the sound of things....

Typical deductions in the UK (up to £40k income per annum) are about 9% national insurance and 22% tax.

once you earn over £40000 you get taxed 40% on every extra £1......

Yes and no, it is a kind of income tax, but it only goes to fund the local councils ect.
Quick summery of our tax system:
First you pay 7% of your income in somekind of work tax. Then you will pay something in country/income tax. It varies depending on how much you earn. It can be from 5,48% to 33%
Then you have some deduction like a union fee and some other things + every dane gets £3000 in default deduction.
Then you pay the 33,4 in council tax (rate can vary from place to place) and 1,05% in chuch tax (can also vary and membership is not mandatory)
You cant pay more than 68% in tax excluding property tax ect.

knockout wrote:

Freiheit wrote:VAT, I think, is where a certian percentage is added to prices. Ie in Denmark a products value is added 25% in tax.

We pay 33,4% in council tax of our basic income and then if you own a house/flat you will pay 1,2% of the value in tax.

Freiheit, that 33.4 % must be income tax.......

you guys are taxed heavily in Denmark by the sound of things....

Typical deductions in the UK (up to £40k income per annum) are about 9% national insurance and 22% tax.

once you earn over £40000 you get taxed 40% on every extra £1......

The 'low countries' and Scandaniavia have taxes which would make us baulk in this country, I think Sweden has an across the board 40% tax. However they also have very low rates of unemployment and excellent health care. It's a choice, but my guess is that the scandaniavian societies are more socially responsible. Thatcher changed all that for good, I think we're all too self obssessed these days. All those communities were destroyed forever, and sadly there's no going back.

Welcome to the 51st State of America!

jamesmcdonnell wrote:

knockout wrote:

Freiheit wrote:VAT, I think, is where a certian percentage is added to prices. Ie in Denmark a products value is added 25% in tax.

We pay 33,4% in council tax of our basic income and then if you own a house/flat you will pay 1,2% of the value in tax.

Freiheit, that 33.4 % must be income tax.......

you guys are taxed heavily in Denmark by the sound of things....

Typical deductions in the UK (up to £40k income per annum) are about 9% national insurance and 22% tax.

once you earn over £40000 you get taxed 40% on every extra £1......

The 'low countries' and Scandaniavia have taxes which would make us baulk in this country, I think Sweden has an across the board 40% tax. However they also have very low rates of unemployment and excellent health care. It's a choice, but my guess is that the scandaniavian societies are more socially responsible. Thatcher changed all that for good, I think we're all too self obssessed these days. All those communities were destroyed forever, and sadly there's no going back.

Welcome to the 51st State of America!

Im unemployed at the moment, and I pay 42% in tax

Council Tax is actually a relatively minor percentage of all the tax you pay. As the chap above says, it's just highly VISABLE. It lands on your doormat, you see the sum...you whine.

How much tax do you think you pay on fags & beer? But I bet you don't moan at the landlord each time do you. His brewery have raised the prices to cover those extra costs from the Exchequer.

I read somewhere that the average person spends about £25,000 on beer/fags every 8 years.

And you think a £700 council tax bill (annually) is a major worry? compared to the tax people pay through their choice of lifestyle it amounts to buggery bollocks actually....

On what? If you have no income, what are you paying tax on, or do you mean you are paying tax on your benefits?

When you are unemployed, what benefits do you get from the state. How much do you get a week if you are not working, and do they contribute to your rent?

jamesmcdonnell wrote:On what? If you have no income, what are you paying tax on, or do you mean you are paying tax on your benefits?

When you are unemployed, what benefits do you get from the state. How much do you get a week if you are not working, and do they contribute to your rent?

I get around £310 a week in unemployment benifit, and that is what I pay the 42% tax of (also have some deductions) If you rent a place you will get rent support depending on how big it is, how many kids you have ect, a place like mine gives £42 a month in support (Dont have to pay tax of them).

£310 a week in unemployment benefit????? Is that just for you??

That's over £1200 a month. I 'take home' £1600 a month after tax, and that's for working full time...

fornicating hell! Is the amount you get in income support, based on your previous earnings, like it is in France? How long are you entitled to that level of income support?

Here it's ridiculous. About 3 years ago, I went from earning about 27,000 a year (not a fortune in London, but not shite either) to being unemployed. Suddenly I am on £50 a week. By the time I bought food I would have about £25 a week left.

I couldn't even afford a phone line, I got cut off, and yet I'm supposed to be looking for work. My arguement is, if I have been paying all that tax, how come I get the same amount of unemployment benefit as someone who has been scrounging for years?

It's difficult to look for work when you're too skint to travel anywhere. It got to the point where I was housebound because I just had no money to travel anywhere. Once a week I could buy a travelcard and that's it. As a consequence it took me ages to find proper work.

The system is stupid.

Loftgroov wrote:£310 a week in unemployment benefit????? Is that just for you??

That's over £1200 a month. I 'take home' £1600 a month after tax, and that's for working full time...

That is just for me, but remember its before tax, I get around £200 after tax

jamesmcdonnell wrote:fornicating hell! Is the amount you get in income support, based on your previous earnings, like it is in France? How long are you entitled to that level of income support?

Here it's ridiculous. About 3 years ago, I went from earning about 27,000 a year (not a fortune in London, but not shite either) to being unemployed. Suddenly I am on £50 a week. By the time I bought food I would have about £25 a week left.

I couldn't even afford a phone line, I got cut off, and yet I'm supposed to be looking for work. My arguement is, if I have been paying all that tax, how come I get the same amount of unemployment benefit as someone who has been scrounging for years?

It's difficult to look for work when you're too skint to travel anywhere. It got to the point where I was housebound because I just had no money to travel anywhere. Once a week I could buy a travelcard and that's it. As a consequence it took me ages to find proper work.

The system is stupid.

When you have worked for 1 full year or 1½ year during the last 3 years you are entitled to that amount but it can max be 80% of what you earned before.

jamesmcdonnell wrote:fornicating hell! Is the amount you get in income support, based on your previous earnings, like it is in France? How long are you entitled to that level of income support?

Here it's ridiculous. About 3 years ago, I went from earning about 27,000 a year (not a fortune in London, but not shite either) to being unemployed. Suddenly I am on £50 a week. By the time I bought food I would have about £25 a week left.

I couldn't even afford a phone line, I got cut off, and yet I'm supposed to be looking for work. My arguement is, if I have been paying all that tax, how come I get the same amount of unemployment benefit as someone who has been scrounging for years?

It's difficult to look for work when you're too skint to travel anywhere. It got to the point where I was housebound because I just had no money to travel anywhere. Once a week I could buy a travelcard and that's it. As a consequence it took me ages to find proper work.

The system is stupid.

id agree a system whereby the length of time you have been employed impacte don the benefits you received, i totally agree that woudl sort the feckin lazy chavs i spoke aobut earlier out.
career unemployed who become unemployable.
sounds rough Jim, hope i never have to go through anything like that.

Yes, the same system as in France then. This makes much more sense. Had we had that system here, I would have been entitled to about £350 a week after tax, and it would have been easy to get back into the swing of things, rather than spending a year where I worked maybe 2 months in total.

Sounds like a sensible system to me.

You should have become a bare-knuckle fighter McDonnell, earned a few quid bashing Gypsies

Sadly, the only one getting bashed would have been me a I fear. Bad hands see.

Of £100 earned, 10% 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 £68 of take-home pay let's say that over a week you spend it thus:
£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. Five per cent of your electric bill goes to the taxman and 4% of any money you pay to protect yourself with insurance. Of the £23 you spend at the flicks and eating out, 17.5% goes to the government in VAT. While you're enjoying yourself, so is the Treasury; they take £4.03 from you for the evening.
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 £32.31 of that week's expenses goes straight to the taxman.
Of the £100 earned, £64.31 will have been paid to the government in tax. At the end of the day, all you will have to show for it is £35.69 in goods and services. A higher-rate taxpayer will retain a miserly £21.69.
Oh, and we haven't even taken into consideration the host of taxes on business, employers national insurance contributions, airport taxes, capital gains tax ... and then there's stamp duty, where you hand over thousands just because you decide to move house! Somebody is taking us for a ride.
Well, That's Interesting

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!


i thought it was 80 but ties in with what i said at the top of the page.

pertrol has to be one of the worst... the prices have sky rocketed recently.....and i thought the iraq crisis was over

yesterday i filled with Diesel up in bermondsey at a shell station... last week it was 87p a litre now it is 90.9p a litre.. most expensive i can remember...1.27 euro for a litre of diesel. i am sure they pay about 0.70 euro on the continent...

Bubs/freheit how much is diesel in your countries??