What if everyone's UK tax data was made public?

[kabbes]

It's true -- I'm not a big fan of working hard. I prefer to work... smart. Yeah, smart.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Aye!







Meanwhile.......

kabbes, PM me your CV and I'll double your salary, beef your pension (plus compensation for your current scheme), a top notch relocation package, luxury housing, best international private education for your kids and total authority to innovate and run a real outfit (and retire within 6 - 8 years).

And all completely confidential.

You'd have to actually really work hard for a wee bit, but could retire wealthy very quickly.

So maybe not for you.




Woof

Is Hong Kong short of travel agents by any chance?

 

[johnnymarrsbars]

i wouldn't want anyone to know how much i earn unless i wanted to tell them. nobody's business.

 

[Wolveryeti]

I don't think people should be forced to give up their privacy, though, just for the sake of it. If it makes me feel awkward, that is enough, surely? I don't have to justify an emotion. What will you gain by knowing what tax I have paid? I am salaried, which means my tax is all taken in PAYG long before I ever see it. I have no funky tax avoidance measures in place. So what more do you need to know?

It's not 'just for the sake of it', though, is it? There are probably cases of unfair pay discrimination running into the thousands that are likely to never see the light of day precisely because pay is such a mysterious thing. You are of course absolutely correct that the day this happens a lot of shit would get stirred, but to be honest, I think it's the right thing to do.

 

[Kanda]

I'm glad I work in a company where it's transparent. You can tell who earns what by what car they buy... Aston or Maserati or...

 

[Badgers]

can't....slow..down..yet..

 

[ethel]

sweden does this. you can phone up and find out anyone's tax records.

 

[Open Sauce]

Still doesn't explain why it is socially awkward for others to know how much you earn/paid in tax. If anything it would be the other way around, the disgust felt when it is announced that some banker's pocketed a £5million would surely be turned around if the story was a banker has just paid nearly £2.5million in the general pot to help pay for shit to help everyone else.

I certainly didn't feel must better over Anne Widdicombe telling us all how Fred Godwin would be paying millions in tax for that pension.

 

[Jessiedog]

Is Hong Kong short of travel agents by any chance?

Well, if you're smart, hungry, know your business and are willing to work your arse off, it could probably be arranged.

You wouldn't get the kind of salary, expat package, etc., that a really good actuary might. But if you're entrepreneurial, willing to take risks, OK with slumming it for a bit, have a goal and the ability to focus upon and prioritise it and (did I mention,) are able and willing to work hard, then you could make a fuck-off loada money in a relatively few years - a fuck-off load. If that's your thing. And at a top rate of tax sliced at 15%, it helps - 50% of working families pay zero tax and then it goes 2%, 5%, 8%, 12% and up to 15% for the top-slice of the highest earners.

Motivation and focus is the key.

Unfortunately, I've been in a rut.




But I hope I'm getting angry - and poor - enough to get some motivation together again soon.


There's no doubt that it's do-able though.




Woof

 

[8115]

It would actually probably be good if people's tax data was in the public domain, as then it would be available for people to do proper analysis on and solve the old "poorest people pay the most tax" conundrum. I have lived on the minimum wage and it really really sucks so anything that can be done to solve that is welcome in my view, I don't care about confidentiality. Worrying about money is a really stressful thing, I can't imagine what it is like if people have kids.

Aside - did you know that benefits are liable for tax? I'm not quite sure how or why that is. Strange. I guess it's to include people on high levels of benefits in decision making about spending that they might otherwise feel excluded from.