UK Tax Is Plenty Taxing

Benjamin Franlin is attributed to have said that 'nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes' and in the UK death and taxes is often in the news because Inheritance Tax is just one of the many ways the Government dig their fingers into our pockets and empty them out into the Government coffers but tax is confusing, mainly because there are so many taxes to get confused about.
During the budget and when the election is called we will be hearing a lot more about Tax and the UK Government has three ways to collect tax, when you earn money (
Income Tax, National Insurance), when you spend money (VAT, Excise Duty) and if you buy or sell any assets (Capital Gains).
There is also Inheritance Tax and Council Tax but unsurprisingly the British Tax Laws are over 500 pages long and it has to be to explain it all but altogether
the tax raised in 2022/23 was £790 billion in 2022-23 and it is down to whichever Government is in power to decide how they spend it.
I never really got my head around tax which is why i paid someone to do my Tax Returns when i was self employed but the Taxpayer Alliance has a handy cut out and keep guide to explain it all.

Income tax is the amount of income tax you pay depending on where your income sits in a series of 'bands' set by the government so 20%, 40% or 45% while National Insurance Contributions is the next thing you will see reducing your wages by 10% falling 8% from April.

Value Added Tax (VAT) and Excise Duty is the tax paid on products and services and amounts to 20% of the final price you pay.

Other taxes are Capital Gains Tax which is the tax due when you sell property, shares, business assets or personal possessions and Inheritance Tax which is paid when a person's estate is worth more than £325,000 when they die and you pay 40% on anything over this amount and Stamp Duty which is 3% of the cost of buying a home and Corporation Tax which is tax on your business profits and depending on the amount of profits, is 19% to 25%.

Council Tax is paid to your local Authority depending on what band your residence is in and runs from between £1,600 to £4,500.

The British are the 4th highest taxed population and i was always advised to set aside 35% of my income for the Tax Bill from Self Assessment but luckily we are not Belgian who are number one for paying tyax with 55% of their wages disappearing into the Government bank account, followed by Finland and Portugal but the people of The Bahamas, Bahrain, Bermuda, Brunei, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Somalia and UAE have no income tax at all.

Tax doesn't have to be taxing so goes the HM Revenue & Customs advertisement but it is and it does so either move to Bermuda or find a very good agent if you need to dip your toe into the world of tax.