$ vs £ | Imamother

pesek zman

Thu, Aug 01 2019, 9:29 am

amother [ Salmon ] wrote:

I agree with OP.

£100K is a good decent wage but nearly half of it goes on taxes at that level.

Our healthcare in UK is not free.. its paid for by our taxes and national insurance.

(Most people I know also have Health Insurance).

Our school fees are not free... yes they are partly paid for by the council however that money also comes from our taxes.

We also have a very generous benefit system here which people see as free money. But this also comes from those of us that pay our taxes.

Nothing is free in life.. Smile

No one said either are free. But they are highly subsidized. And to be clear, though in NY we certainly do pay taxes as well, we don’t have any NHS type of safety net. There also isn’t any vouchers for yeshivas. Tuition can be 20k per year/per child (+/- depending on where you live) and insurance is exhorbitant as well (not to be compared to whatever UK families may spend on top up insurance) No one is asserting that UK is perfect or that people are rolling in money because of these subsidies. But there are differences and these are 2 among them

amother

Pewter

Thu, Aug 01 2019, 9:43 am

I always amazed by the numbers on imamother. Housing and tuition...

But if you work out what percentage of income is spent on tuition and housing, is there a huge difference? (Our yearly voluntary contribution is £5000 and we must pay several k into building fund over the child’s years in school)
Housing is less affordable.
I don’t know groceries, but when you discuss poultry and meat it seems cheaper than what I can buy in the UK.
I agree with pesek zman about social pressures.

amother

Salmon

Thu, Aug 01 2019, 12:07 pm

pesek zman wrote:

Highly subsidised by our taxes.

Income between £50k to £150k is taxed at 40% (over £150k is taxed at 45%) then national insurance is also taken off up to approx 12%.

So, though the NHS is wonderful, those of us that pay taxes are paying for it for everyone, including those that don't.

Metukah

Thu, Aug 01 2019, 7:10 pm

amother [ Salmon ] wrote:

Just a small correction, when you are at the 40% threshold, your national insurance is only 1%.

Until 50k you're paying 32% (20+12) and from about (ni and tax thresholds are not the same) 50k you're paying 41% (40+1).

Also, the fact that NHS is subsidised by our taxes does not mean we don't have free health care. If we paid for our health treatment it would be way way more than our taxes. Private health insurance is also way more reasonable than in USA.

Full tuition and childcare is way more reasonable than in USA.

For my baby I pay almost £10k a year and for my 10 yo ds I pay £5200. That is considered expensive. For my girls I pay £4k. Schooling in NY is way more expensive.

mum22

Thu, Aug 01 2019, 8:03 pm

Between £50k and £60k, the effective tax rate is actually much higher if you have kids. For example, if you have three kids you’re actually paying about 67% in tax!
By the way, national insurance over £50k is actually 2% nowadays.

amother

Salmon

Fri, Aug 02 2019, 3:23 am

2% over 50k and up to 12% under 50k depending on catergory.

We also have 20% VAT (sales tax).

Our Drs wages are not comparable to USA Drs wages.

As a whole, it seems our wages cover our needs in the same way the USA wages cover their needs.