Reply to: We have job losses if you want them baby

[DoctorStrangelove]

One could argue that those were extraordinary times.

Which doesn't quite account for the 98% top rate that existed more recently, back in the days when renting suits was A Thing.

[Zigenare]

Income tax maximum: 99.25% during WWII.

One could argue that those were extraordinary times.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Have you thought about getting a role on "Last of the Summer Wine"?

Income tax maximum: 99.25% during WWII.

[Zigenare]

Look on the bright side, it's not Purchase Tax at 50% (the peak was 100% in 1943 which probably didn't matter since there was almost nothing to buy anyway).

Yet.

Have you thought about getting a role on "Last of the Summer Wine"?

[DoctorStrangelove]

Look on the bright side, it's not Purchase Tax at 50% (the peak was 100% in 1943 which probably didn't matter since there was almost nothing to buy anyway).

Yet.

[WTFH]

Dam it, these things never go down do they

Life expectancy is increasing, and family units are a thing of the past. A civilised society has to pay for the privilege of being a civilised society. For those that don't want to pay tax/NI/etc when they work, then they start whining about paying tax on the purchases that they can't put through their one-man "company".

Life's not fair, princess.

[NotAllThere]

Dam it, these things never go down do they?

Very rarely. In Switzerland the VAT rate did drop from 8% to 7.7% in 2018. But since this year it's 8.1%!

[Zigenare]

Dam(n) it, these things never go down do they? Also VAT at 20% as an "emergency" because of the credit crunch back in 2008 and seemingly the emergency has never ended.

Trying to tax the country into wealth is like lifting yourself into the air by pulling on your own boot laces.

How else are we going to pay for the Civil Service?

[willendure]

Employer NI always has been a tax on working. Whether the rise is inflicted by the Tories or Labour.

1970-1979, EENIC was at 10% Tory/Labour
1980-1997, slight raise to 10.45% in the late 80s. Tory
1997-2000 - 12.8%. Labour
2010-2015 - 13.8% Lib/Con coalition
2015-2019 - 13.8 Tory
2024 - 15% - Labour

Dam it, these things never go down do they? Also VAT at 20% as an "emergency" because of the credit crunch back in 2008 and seemingly the emergency has never ended.

Trying to tax the country into wealth is like lifting yourself into the air by pulling on your own boot laces.

[vetran]

Employer NI always has been a tax on working. Whether the rise is inflicted by the Tories or Labour.

1970-1979, EENIC was at 10% Tory/Labour
1980-1997, slight raise to 10.45% in the late 80s. Tory
1997-2000 - 12.8%. Labour
2010-2015 - 13.8% Lib/Con coalition
2015-2019 - 13.8 Tory
2024 - 15% - Labour

so the highest ever then?

[NotAllThere]

Employer NI always has been a tax on working. Whether the rise is inflicted by the Tories or Labour.

1970-1979, EENIC was at 10% Tory/Labour
1980-1997, slight raise to 10.45% in the late 80s. Tory
1997-2000 - 12.8%. Labour
2010-2015 - 13.8% Lib/Con coalition
2015-2019 - 13.8 Tory
2024 - 15% - Labour

[Chris Bryce]

Keep pushing employment costs up == offshoring of more remote jobs. Simples.

[vetran]

As pointed out earlier on, any efficient business will not have more staff than it needs so, if it lays off staff, its production and profits will decrease. So they won't do that on any significant scale.

As for offshoring & automation, if they could do more of that they'd already have done it.

putting the costs up just makes automation & offshoring more attractive & possible.

[sadkingbilly]

yeh, - right!

[Snooky]

It's actually fairly straightforward. If 50,000 small business lay off 1 staff member or several very large companies lay off 1% of their combined 500k workforce as a result of the extra overheads, it's still 50k unemployed people to support.

Meanwhile the big guys offshore or automate their workforce to fill the gap, sending another chunk of income out of the country.

At some point, even Starmer and Reeves will realise their actions are totally incompatible with promoting growth in the UK. Probably too late to do anything about it.

As pointed out earlier on, any efficient business will not have more staff than it needs so, if it lays off staff, its production and profits will decrease. So they won't do that on any significant scale.

As for offshoring & automation, if they could do more of that they'd already have done it.