£100,000 per year

[centurian]

It's the amount of tax that has to be paid that pisses me off.

So let's say you have an income like this

2010 - 10k
2011 - 10k
2012 - 10k
2013 - 100k
2014 - 110k
2015 - 0k

Versus someone on

2010 - 40k
2011 - 40k
2012 - 40k
2013 - 40k
2014 - 40k
2015 - 40k

Mr steady eady in the second example is better off, having paid a tulip load less tax, even though you earn the same over a period of time

Tax should be a flat rate, not hiked if you earn more in one year than another.

Exactly - I reckon about half of "high earners" are only in that bracket for a relatively short span of their working careers. Their long term average is much more... well ... average.

Marginal rate pensions tax relief can be useful in smoothing a little bit of that out - especially for those earning 100-120K, but even that is probably for the chop, because it's deemed "unfair" that they get more relief, for what may only be a few years of going into a higher tax band - when their career average is really just par.

[DodgyAgent]

Exactly - I reckon about half of "high earners" are only in that bracket for a relatively short span of their working careers. Their long term average is much more... well ... average.

Marginal rate pensions tax relief can be useful in smoothing a little bit of that out - especially for those earning 100-120K, but even that is probably for the chop, because it's deemed "unfair" that they get more relief, for what may only be a few years of going into a higher tax band - when their career average is really just par.

The problem is not the tax but what is done with it. Even here you can see clearly it is seen as a punishment.

[vetran]

its alright benefits will be uncapped

Jeremy Corbyn calls for UNLIMITED benefits after being cheered into TUC conference | Daily Mail Online

Jeremy Corbyn was given a hero's welcome at the TUC conference today as he announced Labour will campaign to lift the government's £26,000 a year cap on benefits.
.....

'What they are is poverty deniers: Ignoring the growing queues at food banks. Ignoring the growing housing crisis. Cutting Tax Credits when child poverty rose by half a million under the last Government to over four million.

'Let's be clear austerity is a political choice not an economic necessity.'

Mr Corbyn's first act since winning the leadership on Saturday was to rally Labour MPs to vote against the government's proposals in the House of Commons.

[DaveB]

What I have a problem with is that people who do so somehow think that they are in some way being "virtuous and considerate" of those less well off them themselves.

You mean like that "Compassionate Conservative", Mr Cameron?

The one who is cutting support for the poorest families, including those that are already working hard and struggling to survive in marginal jobs or on Zero Hours contracts while telling them it's good for them.

You know, the chap that says "We are all in this together" while sitting on a family trust fund with millions stashed in offshore tax havens and earning a paltry £142,000 a year (not including expenses).

David Cameron's inherited family wealth 'based in foreign tax havens' - Telegraph

[Jog On]

BTW. Being a Socialist doesn't mean you can't do well for yourself, nor does it mean you can't look after your family. It does mean you give a tulip about those at the bottom of the ladder and do what you can to bring about equality and welfare for those in need. In Benn's case's through a life in politics spent fighting for just that.

This is what I thought socialism meant - but I'm not too familiar with the term not being one myself so I may be wrong.

Don't care much for political labels.

[PurpleGorilla]

You mean like that "Compassionate Conservative", Mr Cameron?

The one who is cutting support for the poorest families, including those that are already working hard and struggling to survive in marginal jobs or on Zero Hours contracts while telling them it's good for them.

You know, the chap that says "We are all in this together" while sitting on a family trust fund with millions stashed in offshore tax havens and earning a paltry £142,000 a year (not including expenses).

David Cameron's inherited family wealth 'based in foreign tax havens' - Telegraph

Well they don't let any old oik go to Eton you know!

[DodgyAgent]

You mean like that "Compassionate Conservative", Mr Cameron?

The one who is cutting support for the poorest families, including those that are already working hard and struggling to survive in marginal jobs or on Zero Hours contracts while telling them it's good for them.

You know, the chap that says "We are all in this together" while sitting on a family trust fund with millions stashed in offshore tax havens and earning a paltry £142,000 a year (not including expenses).

David Cameron's inherited family wealth 'based in foreign tax havens' - Telegraph

Typical left wing wail. What do you suggest is done? pay out more benefits to keep them at home? If these people had not had their aspirations killed off by poor public services (education especially) they would be independent of the state. This is my point which you illustrate so well. keep the plebs in poverty and you have your victims . This gives you cart blanche to wail. If housing was plentiful, education top notch, health and social care of the highest quality and a secure environment "these people" would not need the state, nor would they need to be patronised by the affluent middle classes as represented by your ilk.

[DaveB]

This is what I thought socialism meant - but I'm not too familiar with the term not being one myself so I may be wrong.

Don't care much for political labels.

There is no single definition of what being a Socialist is. It's a broad church, from those who think capitalism has a role to play in generating wealth that can be used for the common good to out and out Communists / Marxists / Anarchists who want to see the capitalist system dismantled altogether.

Fundamantally, if you think that we as a society should be doing our best to ensure that everyone has an equial opportunity to do well, that those in need of help should get it and that those better off should do what they can to help others where they are able, you are probaly a socialist of some description.

[PurpleGorilla]

Typical left wing wail. What do you suggest is done? pay out more benefits to keep them at home? If these people had not had their aspirations killed off by poor public services (education especially) they would be independent of the state. This is my point which you illustrate so well. keep the plebs in poverty and you have your victims . This gives you cart blanche to wail. If housing was plentiful, education top notch, health and social care of the highest quality and a secure environment "these people" would not need the state, nor would they need to be patronised by the affluent middle classes as represented by your ilk.

I am in favour of a smaller more efficient state.

[DimPrawn]

its alright benefits will be uncapped

Jeremy Corbyn calls for UNLIMITED benefits after being cheered into TUC conference | Daily Mail Online

Basically if this nutter gets in, I'm going for unlimited benefits. I will kick back, claim a bad back/depression and live off the state like everyone else. If not, some cushy public sector non-job counting tractor production, on the sick, whilst getting a healthy final salary pension. That's when I'm not on strike that is comrade.

******* idiots here think 1970's sick man of Europe is the way forward.

Throughout the 1970s, the United Kingdom was sometimes called the "sick man of Europe" by critics of its government at home, because of industrial strife and poor economic performance compared to other European countries,[10] culminating with the Winter of Discontent of 1978–1979.