Paying somebody in cash

[trigger_andy]

In last 10 years I think Ive paid an average of £60k tax a year. Thats £600k total. Ive been in Norway since 2009 so since then its at least £700k paid. Thats not including my UK NI contributions.  😮 Thankfully HMRC see a very small about of of my tax. Self employed folk dont know their living! No wonder they can survive on such a low day-rate. 

[eggsarascal]

5 minutes ago, trigger_andy said:

In last 10 years I think Ive paid an average of £60k tax a year. Thats £600k total. Ive been in Norway since 2009 so since then its at least £700k paid. Thats not including my UK NI contributions.  😮 Thankfully HMRC see a very small about of of my tax. Self employed folk dont know their living! No wonder they can survive on such a low day-rate. 

I don’t mind paying my tax if I get the services I need when I need them, some years back I was seriously ill and the NHS/tax payer looked after me well, although I did have to get into my company provided health care at one stage to fast track things. It’s the amount of money wasted that grinds my gears. Not firsthand experience but my now retired SiL worked all her working life for the NHS, the waste she told me about is shocking.

[Mr. Squirrel]

On 09/07/2023 at 22:19, Johnsond said:

Your mrs was an Hmrc investigator 🤷‍♂️that’s a thread stopper I’d say. Relentless heartless c…s in my experience. 

I think she lasted three months... She saw them going through peoples bank statements, phone records, emails etc. things like not having used your card at the supermarket in a long time, or going on holiday without taking out euros we’re both ‘evidence’, and bolted.
 She did give me a couple of heads up on firms to steer clear of though, which was nice for my own pace of mind. 
But no, not quite a heartless c**t. 

[trigger_andy]

13 minutes ago, eggsarascal said:

I don’t mind paying my tax if I get the services I need when I need them, some years back I was seriously ill and the NHS/tax payer looked after me well, although I did have to get into my company provided health care at one stage to fast track things. It’s the amount of money wasted that grinds my gears. Not firsthand experience but my now retired SiL worked all her working life for the NHS, the waste she told me about is shocking.

If I dont get through to my Dr unless Im one of the very lucky few who manages to get a line at 08:30. Its a total shit show. Even if I do I have to give my personal problems to a bloody receptionist. Its then passed to a 'nurse' regardless of the severity. 

 

Thankfully I have private healthcare in Norway or Id be screwed. 

 

Nobody who is a net contributor should be held hostage by net beneficiaries. Unfortunately the left has allowed the tail to wag the dog and now we're in a position the 'right' has warned about for decades and its somewhat laughable we now have the bleeding hearts slowly watch the penny drop. Too late though. So thankfully they're more f?cked than those on the right who seen the writing on the wall. 

[Mr. Squirrel]

22 hours ago, Johnsond said:

I know full time contracted sat divers who are paying out 70-90k a year in tax.

How do people get into that? I really wanted to be a sat diver when I was in school, I knew it was a job but I didn’t know what it was called and nobody could give me any info on it. I’d taught myself to weld and was offered an apprenticeship with rolls Royce out in Dubai or something, but I only ever really wanted to do it under water. Ended up in tree work which I do love, but paying 70k a year in tax sounds quite nice to me. How messed up is that? 

[eggsarascal]

3 minutes ago, trigger_andy said:

If I dont get through to my Dr unless Im one of the very lucky few who manages to get a line at 08:30. Its a total shit show. Even if I do I have to give my personal problems to a bloody receptionist. Its then passed to a 'nurse' regardless of the severity. 

 

Thankfully I have private healthcare in Norway or Id be screwed. 

 

Nobody who is a net contributor should be held hostage by net beneficiaries. Unfortunately the left has allowed the tail to wag the dog and now we're in a position the 'right' has warned about for decades and its somewhat laughable we now have the bleeding hearts slowly watch the penny drop. Too late though. So thankfully they're more f?cked than those on the right who seen the writing on the wall. 

I don’t really want to turn this political so I’ll end my involvement in this part of the conversation here. In the last 13 years the right have tried to and to an extent have dismantled the NHS. It’s about time you stop blaming a political party that hasn’t been in power for the best part of a decade n half for the downfall of the NHS in England, and massive rises in taxes at the same time, I could go on, but I’ll not bother.

[maybelateron]

1 hour ago, eggsarascal said:

Not firsthand experience but my now retired SiL worked all her working life for the NHS, the waste she told me about is shocking.

Absolutely. Having worked in the NHS for 30 years, and been a patient in it as well, I have seen it first hand.

A year or so before I retired early as a GP lots of local practices changed from 1 computer system to another as this was deemed to be better. All funded by NHS, including training staff to use new system. Yes, you've guessed it - within a few years they were all changed back to the older system for whatever reason. In 1984, working as a junior hospital doctor in Birmingham, I noticed a corridor full of bedside cabinets in good condition. I asked one of the porters why this was happening - he explained that the relevant department had not used up all their annual budget, and needed to do so before the year end to ensure they did not get a smaller funding for the next year! Sorry for derailing thread but this is so ridiculous people need to know.

[eggsarascal]

2 minutes ago, maybelateron said:

Absolutely. Having worked in the NHS for 30 years, and been a patient in it as well, I have seen it first hand.

A year or so before I retired early as a GP lots of local practices changed from 1 computer system to another as this was deemed to be better. All funded by NHS, including training staff to use new system. Yes, you've guessed it - within a few years they were all changed back to the older system for whatever reason. In 1984, working as a junior hospital doctor in Birmingham, I noticed a corridor full of bedside cabinets in good condition. I asked one of the porters why this was happening - he explained that the relevant department had not used up all their annual budget, and needed to do so before the year end to ensure they did not get a smaller funding for the next year! Sorry for derailing thread but this is so ridiculous people need to know.

I saw it firsthand on the water authority, our then manager told me to order anything I wanted (tools wise) to blow the budget so he/we didn’t get knocked in the next financial year. I got a new camera for £25k, didn’t really need it but I’d got it on the van. Absolute madness!

[Steven P]

Taxes - Mrs P said it well once "honoured to pay taxes since that means I am paying my way in the world" - however we can grumble that the tax man takes 5k or 50k off us.

 

For some of the figures above they put an unrealistic expectation perhaps. The mean salary for a full time employee is about £40k and the median is about £32k. Add in part time workers and this drops by about £10k. On a political point echoing some of the above - guess which figure the government uses to argue its case for their employees (NHS being topical this week, but civil servants, police, fire and so on). (mean salary: Add all the salaries and divide by workers, median is the middle point move down from highest and up from lowest one at a time till you meet in the middle)

 

I reckon that if you are paying near that in tax and above then you are doing OK. Granted there are a lot of business owners who read this, and they have taken financial risks, responsibility to give a wage to others, keeping their workers from killing themselves and so on - and the risks they take need greater rewards

 

However end of the day for me is can I afford to do all the stuff I want to do and be fulfilled - mostly yes - so do I need to bust a gut to pay the tax man an extra 10k, probably not

[Johnsond]

3 hours ago, Mr. Squirrel said:

How do people get into that? I really wanted to be a sat diver when I was in school, I knew it was a job but I didn’t know what it was called and nobody could give me any info on it. I’d taught myself to weld and was offered an apprenticeship with rolls Royce out in Dubai or something, but I only ever really wanted to do it under water. Ended up in tree work which I do love, but paying 70k a year in tax sounds quite nice to me. How messed up is that? 

Start off as a diver in the inshore civil engineering side of things, progress to offshore air diving then after a certain period get your sat ticket done along with a multitude of other qualifications and hopefully you can get a start. No guarantees at all though and it’s very much dependent on how busy the industry is, who you know or the price of oil.etc etc  A good background trade in particular welding is a bonus for hyperbaric welding ( 3k a day) it’s not a good career for job security or families that’s for sure and to get up to the level of training required to do the job we are discussing is an outlay of maybe 40-50k over time. But no doubt about the rewards can be very good as is the buzz you get at times. One of my sons has just started in the game  against my wishes I might add but good luck to him 👍