petrol / diesel ripp off

[SlowOne]

This is old hat, turned up in 2000 when the first action against fuel prices started. It's also rubbish! By the last count, there were only 60m of us in this country, so how would an e-mail sent to 300m people be any good?!! Oh, and only 30m cars!

From 10 Jan this year, fuel duty is 50.35p per litre. The rate for biodiesel and bioethanol is 30.35p/litre. Roughly speaking, the refinery gets about 30p, the retailer about 5p, and all that has VAT added. So, 85p (ish) plus 17.5% VAT gives us the magic £1 per litre.

HMG gets about 65p per litre tax (so, 65% duty, not 97% as mentioned earlier!) by adding a tax to a tax, and the smallest slice goes to the guy who swipes your card - except that the guy swiping the card is also the guy doing the refining, in a lot of cases!

In the USA, there is no fuel tax, so the doubling of crude oil prices has gone straight through to the pump price - $1 a gallon when all this started (2000), almost $3 a gallon now. In the same time, our pump prices have gone from 87p a litre to £1. Whinge all you like, I know which system I prefer!

Fuel tax raises about £23bn a year, out of a total Government budget of about £427bn per year, out of a GDP of about £1 trillion. I know it feels like a rip-off, but it is a flea-bite compared to income tax (30%) NI (20%) VAT (17%) and Corporation tax (8%).

If you want to get really cross about something, get cross about the fact that people who weren't born here, but live here, can claim non-domiciled status for tax purposes. This means they pay virtually no tax on their incomes (because they declare it as overseas income) - Abramovich included. The 'non-doms', as they are called, are worth about £100bn, on which they pay £14m in tax; about 1.4%. And in this last Statement, the Government said they would tax them - at £35,000 a year!

Oh, and in case you are wondering, there is no fuel tax on the aviation fuel for their private jets...

[Lee]

This is all very true slow one, but how did you get the 8% corporation tax? Im paying 20% as of last april when mr brown abolished composite companies and tried to make us all go p.a.y.e.

Its still a lot less than the 40% than i would pay as p.a.y.e but i would like to know where it says 8%, so i can get 12% back

Also if you want to save cash and you are self employed/ltd company, you can do a flat rate vat scheme. I currently charge 17.5% for my services but have an agreement with HMRC that i only pay 11.5%. So its an extra 6% or so in your pocket not theres.
Another loop hole is your reccommended to claim 40 p/mile for the first 10k of any assignment and then 25p thereafter,(tax free) but!!! still claim 40p per mile and get the 25 tax free and get taxed on the 15 p per mile, your still better off!!

[DCM]

spoken like a true politician, but lets even up things a little (except blairs buddy tax for the non-domiciled).

Tax isn't 30%, once you earn over a certain bracket, it increases from the standard base rate. We all have a tax threshold so can earn a certain amount before you pay any tax. nI isn't 20%, can't remember how much it is, but nowhere near 20%. the government chaged the income tax this year which bennefitted all those earning over i think, £20k, all those who were earning below the second tier threshold all end up paying more tax, and it is those people who can't afford the increase.

With a car, it isn't just the fuel duty, you have a tax on your insurance, your road fund licence is exorbitent (mine is £180 a year), so when they are still using Maggie Thatchers fuel tax excalator, it makes those who depend on a car for a living, a much bigger expense.

I don't do politics much, but the Labour party has done more to cripple you financialy if you are working class than any other party in the past, with stealth taxes and gordon brown spending worse than a footballers wife, under labour, we have gone from a company with manufacturing industry and a good pot of cash in the bank to a country which is closing down its industrial heritage and replacing them with call centres and a massive black hole where money falls in.

[SlowOne]

Sorry Lea, not very clear. Those presentages are the amount of the total Government income - so 30% of all Government income is income tax, and 8% of all Government income is Corporation Tax, and so on...

Fuel duty is 6% of all Government... etc. Compared to the other areas of income, it's a pretty small amount, even though we feel it every day. What's also not obvious is that every time the refinery price changes, the tax goes up because of the VAT element :sneaky:

If Income Tax had to be paid at a kiosk every week, there would be a lot more moaning about that!! It just slides out of the salary as a number on a sheet; as we've never had it, we don't see it being taken away!

I find it interesting that people moaning about taxes in this country go live in France, Spain and Italy, where taxes are even higher, because they say it is a better quality of life. And everyone talks about the Swedes' very high quality of life, and they pay the highest taxes in Europe! There's a lesson in there somewhere...

Anyway, hope that clears the %ages up for you.

[Lee]

Yeah but at least we have the millenium dome to be proud of

It does my head in paying tax but i understand it has to be done, but i pay as little as possible because i would rather see my cash benefiting those around me, instead of buying my local MP a flat in london. if you look at the road system we have at the moment, its crap, if you take the £100 average per year from all 30million vehicles on the road then thats a nice 300million to improve our roads, but no londons getting a new underground to ferry around hundreds of druggies for a few weeks in 2012

Where is the sense, the country needs more houses in affordable areas?

[DCM]

the lack of affordable housing starts back with the previous conservative government, with the 'right to buy' policy, which I have, in principle, no objection as I live in an ex-council house, but the money raised by selling them off should of been ring-fenced to creat more new community housing, and not rely on private industry to build cheap houses and sell at a massive profit.

With regard to taxes, it isn't what comes out of your wage that causes the problem in the UK, it is the tax on almost everything you buy that kills us.

[Lee]

Originally Posted by SlowOne

Sorry Lea, not very clear. Those presentages are the amount of the total Government income - so 30% of all Government income is income tax, and 8% of all Government income is Corporation Tax, and so on...

Fuel duty is 6% of all Government... etc. Compared to the other areas of income, it's a pretty small amount, even though we feel it every day. What's also not obvious is that every time the refinery price changes, the tax goes up because of the VAT element :sneaky:

If Income Tax had to be paid at a kiosk every week, there would be a lot more moaning about that!! It just slides out of the salary as a number on a sheet; as we've never had it, we don't see it being taken away!

I find it interesting that people moaning about taxes in this country go live in France, Spain and Italy, where taxes are even higher, because they say it is a better quality of life. And everyone talks about the Swedes' very high quality of life, and they pay the highest taxes in Europe! There's a lesson in there somewhere...

Anyway, hope that clears the %ages up for you.

I understand now cheers.

Yes i was in denmark last year and norway a few weeks ago, on average in a bar you would pay £8 a pint.
I also hear what your saying if we had to go and hand over a percentage of our wages each week, there would be murder (i dont like doing it)
I think though if you add up all of our taxes we really do get hammered, like 22-40% on income, 17% on anything we buy, flights are nearly 50% tax, council tax (mine is 2.5k a year) it all adds up and how much of your net wages really go to you, even your savings are taxed when you have already paid tax when earning the cash.