h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Did we have this conversation when the news actually broke?

How come it has taken this long for it to come to public knowledge? If it's such a bad idea why weren't more people trying to tell us about it at the time?

Actually I said it immediately he sat down - that it would hit the hardest up by removing the 10p rate.

I thought I'd got it wrong because nobody in the opposition benches said anything.

I recently started a new job, which means this month's payslip is unsullied with commission & bonus etc but, it has allowed the wife & I to make a direct comparison and it's showed up how iniquitous tax bands can be.

I earn £2500 Gross more than her. After tax I end up with £52 a month more So out of that £2500, I only actually get £624 or 25%.

Even more curiously, she has been ill recently. Her company only pay 6 weeks sick pay. After that, it's Statutory Sick Pay. So for last month she had one week of SSP & three weeks of wages. Would you believe her paypacket is £27 UP ? She's sorely tempted to take one week sick every month now cos it makes her better off.

Our tax system is in need of an overhaul methinks.

The tax book was 4,000 pages in 1987

It's now up to 10,000 pages - and to get it to manageable size they've reduced the typeface - other wise it would be more.

Gordon has not simplified the taxation system - two bands would be simpler if it wasn't for all his rules regarding who can claim allowances and the other tweaks and whistles.

Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present the entire Hong Kong personal tax form:

http://www.ird.gov.hk/eng/ese/st_comp_2008_09_budget/stcfrm.htm

... all one page of it.

You can get tax records for ten years in five minutes (see my personal space) And although I paid about 15% tax last year, I'll get quite a lot of it back as a rebate because the govt had so much money this year it didn't know what to do with it.
I've paid my tax on-line for the last five years. Three years ago I shared an office with a really scatty woman who kept forgetting to pay tax, or add on bits. She used to phone the tax office several days after the due date and the nice tax man would talk her through her form. Basically she paid over the phone. I shall miss the efficient bureaucracy in HK

Just been able to compare this month's paylsip with last month's. My tax is down about £60, but my national insurance up by about £40. And yes it feels so very very wrong to be £20 a month better off, knowing that those earning a third of my salary are £20 a month worse off.

I can't do a comparison because my pension has been closed and my contributions are now being taken by salary sacrifice.