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UK Taxes etc.



Dear colleagues

I suspect that the post I have just deleted which referred to the Oral
History post at my institution was not meant to go to the list.  However,
in the interests of information exchange I thought that I would provide
some facts so that you can weigh up the "taxes are frightening in the UK"
remark.  They probably are, but  at least you will now know what to weigh
in the balance.

This is only a simplified description just to give you an idea - I am not a
tax accountant!  Also these figures may be subject to some change as the
Chancellor will be announcing his Budget on 21st March.  If there is any
change then the trend is towards cutting income tax either by cutting the
rate or by increasing the allowances, and getting the money back secretly
by increasing consumption taxes (e.g. levies on pollution, smoking and
alcohol, taxes on insurance premiums)

Income Tax - from 1 April 2000
First £4385 of income is tax-free
Next £1500 above that is taxed at 10%
Next £26,500 is taxed at 22% ("the base rate")
(Above that there is one higher tax band of 40%, but that is irrelevant to
the post we are offering)

These tax rates apply acoss the whole country.  The Scottish Parliament has
been given the power to vary the base rate by up to 3% in either direction,
but has not done so yet.  If you are not self-employed you receive your pay
tax-paid, not gross.

Local taxes ("Council taxes") are raised on the value of your house and are
set by the local council.  Rates vary widely across the country from
council to council, and also depend on what value band your house falls
into.   The "value of your house" is a notional relative figure set some
years ago - properties do not move in and out of different bands as house
prices rise and fall.  This property tax is the only tax that local
councils are allowed to raise.  There are no local sales taxes, "tourist
taxes" or anything like that.  The national govenment also sets a ceiling
on how much local councils can spend and therefore on how much tax they can
raise.

There is a national sales tax called VAT which stands for "Value-added
tax".  (It is over simplistic to call this a sales tax, but for ordinary
joe consumers that is what it feels like.) .  The normal rate for VAT is a
whopping 17.5%, but utilities (gas, electricity etc.) are taxed at 5%.
Some items are free of VAT - travel tickets, theatre and cinema tickets,
most food bought in a food shop (as opposed to eating out in a restaurant
or cafe), books and newspapers.  The European Union keeps trying to
persuade us to tax food, books and newspapers, but so far we are resisting.

Nearly all displayed shop prices INCLUDE tax - it is not added on at the till.

Tobacco and alcohol is taxed very highly, with the tobacco tax being used
to part-fund the National Health Service.  No-one really cares about these
taxes as it's all in a good cause, but everyone makes sure that they use up
their duty-free allownces when travelling!

Speaking of the NHS, you also pay on your income betwen £3484 per annum and
£27820 per annum above a National Insurance contribution (currently 8.4% I
think).  This allows you to use the National Health Service for free.  We
rather like the idea that you will be given the treatment you need (rather
than what you can afford) by a doctor or in hospital with no-one asking to
see your insurance policy.

Finally, (not a tax issue) the post we are advertising gets 28 working days
paid holiday per annum, plus national holidays.  This is fairly standard.


==================================================
Richard Taylor
Curator, Archive Collections
National Railway Museum
Leeman Road
YORK YO26 4XJ
ENGLAND

Tel     +44 (0)1904 686 289
Fax     +44 (0)1904 611 112
Email   r.taylor@nmsi.ac.uk
Website http://www.nrm.org.uk

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