The petrol thread has got me thinking.
Brits pay a fortune in tax on petrol duty. We pay about 80p a litre at the moment, of which about 50p I think is tax. And of course there’s yearly road tax just for having a car.
House prices over here have been rising for years. My nice 3 bedroom house cost £90,000 two and a half years ago. If I put it on the market today, I’d get around £160,000 (maybe a bit more because I’ve done it up a bit). But income hasn’t risen in line with that.
So a first time buyer now is looking at around £150,000 on average for a basic house, double that if you’re trying to live in London.
We get taxed on all our earnings. 25% if you earn under £30,000 a year, then it goes up to (I think) 35%, then 50% once you start earning shedloads. Plus we all pay National Insurance as well, which is supposed to go towards public services like the NHS.
But then we have Council Tax will also pays for public services and is based on the value of your house. Then cost brackets for this don’t seem to have risen along with the house price, so that’s increased yearly, plus the amount gets put up annually regardless. And let us not forget stamp duty on houses when you buy them…
There’s duty on cigarettes (which doesn’t bother me because I don’t smoke), duty on alcohol (which does bother me because I drink), VAT on just about everything that you buy…
It occurs to me that just about all of your money ends up in the Government’s grubby little mitts, regardless of what you do… :sure:
