Poll: Poll: Prime Minister Theresa May calls General Election on June 8th

Who will you vote for?

  • Conservatives

  • Labour

  • Lib Dem

  • UKIP

  • Other (please state)

  • I won't be voting


Results are only viewable after voting.
Status
Not open for further replies.
Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
26,179
A £70k salary as an individual means you're very well off, even in London. People who want to argue this confuse me.
 
Soldato
Joined
6 Oct 2011
Posts
4,260
So you essentially live in a commuter town outside London.

A 3 bed semi in zone 6 is around £500k, what mortgage term would you need to be paying only £800 a month? :p

Answer - ~£2k with a 10% deposit

Well my house isn't worth £500K :p - Probably not even £400k just yet...

But yea, even as caged said, £70k in London isn't as nice as in Sunderland... however it should see you through quite nicely.
 
Soldato
Joined
29 Jul 2004
Posts
7,060
Well £70k is around £4k a month. Mortgage for 3 bed house in London would most certainly be north of £1k, unless stupid deposit was had. Travel? Well depends on location...

Put it this way, I don't earn £70k. Live just outside zone 6. 3 bed semi-detached.

Rough Monthly outgoings

£800 mortgage.
£180 council.
£80 Gas Water Electric
£120 Sky/phone/ internet/ Mobile
£250 a month train.
£80 insurances
£250 Food/ cleaning products/ etc.
£80 petrol (I do less than 10,000 miles a year)

That's £1,840, alright I eat fairly well and don't scrimp on the luxuries. Add in takeaways and few subscriptions for Netflix apple music etc. I'm at around the £2,000 mark.

So if i was on £70k I would be on £2,000 disposable, which would be nice.

However I probably slightly benefit from living somewhere where I can get a London wage and not London house prices. I recon you could probably add £500 to that just for living in London.

Yeah you aren't getting a mortgage for £800, Might as well put a 1 in front of it (and probably add some more on top for good measure), plus you would be in for an interesting ride once interest rates increase.
 
Soldato
Joined
6 Oct 2011
Posts
4,260
Yeah you aren't getting a mortgage for £800, Might as well put a 1 in front of it (and probably add some more on top for good measure), plus you would be in for an interesting ride once interest rates increase.

Think I would know what I pay a month mortgage... o.O but excuse my inaccuracy, it's £885.19.

I didn't think £250 a month for food and toiletries and domestic products and all that was too bad?

p.s My house was bought for £325k... just incase people are using the £500k number. One station outside zone 6.
 
Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
26,179
Most definitely. Rich? Guess it depends on your definition of rich, but I personally wouldn't say so.

The definition of rich changes as people acquire more, obviously. Anybody can write a list that shows they are left with very little 'disposable' income from their £70k salary after they have spent a ton of cash on things that the majority would class as a luxury - all it means is that person can write a list and total up the lines. Acting as though a slight taxation increase on people earning more than £70k a year is somehow alienating the electorate is bonkers.
 
Soldato
Joined
29 Jul 2004
Posts
7,060
Yeah you aren't getting a mortgage for £800, Might as well put a 1 in front of it (and probably add some more on top for good measure)
Think I would know what I pay a month mortgage... o.O but excuse my inaccuracy, it's £885.19.

I didn't think £250 a month for food and toiletries and domestic products and all that was too bad?

p.s My house was bought for £325k... just incase people are using the £500k number. One station outside zone 6.

I was using the example of buying a house today, as you are using a hypothetical 70k salary.

Also 800 a month mortgage for 325k? Any Mortgate calculator will throw out a figure at least double that.
 
Caporegime
Joined
25 Jul 2005
Posts
28,851
Location
Canada
The definition of rich changes as people acquire more, obviously. Anybody can write a list that shows they are left with very little 'disposable' income from their £70k salary after they have spent a ton of cash on things that the majority would class as a luxury - all it means is that person can write a list and total up the lines. Acting as though a slight taxation increase on people earning more than £70k a year is somehow alienating the electorate is bonkers.

I'm not disagreeing about the tax increase, but to argue someone in London is "Rich" because they earn over £70k is a bit of a stretch imo.

That said most Brits would be considered rich by someone on $2 a day in Africa..
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
31 May 2009
Posts
21,257
SO an election thread turns into how much someone pays in London for a mortgage, and it isn't about the cost, its about pedantics.
Nice.

which taxrise for those on over 70K are we talking about btw?
 
Soldato
Joined
6 Oct 2011
Posts
4,260
I was using the example of buying a house today, as you are using a hypothetical 70k salary.

Also 800 a month mortgage for 325k? Any Mortgate calculator will throw out a figure at least double that.

I bought the house 6 months ago. I have a lower rate for 3 years, Santander did a FTB special mortgage offer. Normally would have been about £1100. 20% deposit helped...

Just to build the bigger picture I'm 27... 5ish years saving.

Was hard but worth it.

I still don't understand why you're finding it hard to believe me.

I was merely giving a real life example to prove either way if 70k was/ wasn't a lot of money for someone living in London.

Imo, as I said earlier, it gives enough for a comfortable living, especially without kids. But a far cry from rich.
 
Soldato
Joined
17 Apr 2009
Posts
7,603
I don't know the history of that to be honest but someone just asked him that in the House of Commons.

It's a thing that's been going since before he was leader. Before the coalition IIRC. He's largely made it worse for himself; Tim likes to talk. He'll go on for hours about the virtues of Liberalism. His answers have generally been along the lines of "As a Liberal, I support people's rights to make their own life choices. It's none of my business if they are gay. It's not up to me to judge, just as it's not up to you to judge me as a Christian".

It's fairly obvious he isn't homophobic, but his lack of clear, direct answers has resulted in the issue following him around. Thankfully, he seems to be learning; vagueness in politics is simply an opportunity for your enemies to strike.
 
Soldato
Joined
17 Apr 2009
Posts
7,603
doesn't always work that way though - simply increasing tax rates doesn't necessarily increase what the government gets in taxes both through avoidance/evasion and simply people deciding that it isn't worth it

when you're looking at people earning 70k then you're targeting some of the most productive people in our economy - we've already got plenty of people screwed by the 60% rate once they hit 100k. This is the area where you're targeting things like overtime and bonuses - the doctor who decides to work a Saturday clinic for extra pay etc..

the poor don't have much in the way of tax burden - I'm not really sure what that is even in relation to. Sure the NHS could do with more funding but frankly the cuts to benefits are a good thing and perhaps ought to go further still.

I don't disagree. Some of the people that work part-time for me won't take overtime because they earn close to the tax free threshold. Their hourly rate when working extra hours is effectively 20% lower for doing the same work. It's a problem you're always going to find close to any tax band; overtime isn't worth it to some people. I expect the same thing happens for people earning close to £33,500 and £45,000 too.

On the avoidance thing, I'm not sure an extra 5-10% tax would really make much difference to tax avoidance among people earning £70,000-£150,000. Of the rest, I doubt more than a few will go from paying tax to avoiding it. It's not like a good accountant is free.

Personally I'm not fussed whether we're a high-tax, big-state country, or a low-tax small-state country. I'd just like to see us pick one. Most people in this country seem to expect something for nothing; low taxes and a well-funded NHS, effective state schools, care for the elderly, etc. Either we need to accept that we can't have nice (state-run) things, or we need to find the fairest way to raise more tax revenue.
 
Last edited:
Caporegime
Joined
29 Jan 2008
Posts
58,930
On the avoidance thing, I'm not sure an extra 5-10% tax would really make much difference to tax avoidance among people earning £70,000-£150,000. Of the rest, I doubt more than a few will go from paying tax to avoiding it. It's not like a good accountant is free.

I'm not sure why you'd capping it at 150k - people earning over 150k would be affected by this too

these people make up a significant (double digit %) of revenue yet only make up a very small % of the population - tax changes would very likely lead to changes of behaviour to the point where even a 5% change can become meaningless at that level
 
Soldato
Joined
11 May 2007
Posts
8,951
Location
Surrey
Can anyone shed light on why there are tax bands and why the tax system doesn't work on a sliding scale? It seems daft that you pay 10% on a portion, 20% on the next, etc and not the percentages in between. Like in the housing market, it means prices bunch up before going over the threshold. Surely a formulaic approach is more sensible?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom