April 6, 2003
Yes, I know I'm a bad boy...
... and I've been neglecting my duty as a blogger to tell anyone who will listen what's on my mind every few minutes... ;)
So, in an effort to rectify this here's what I'm currently thinking about.
Why is my tax burden rising so much when I have a fairly modest income?
As from today the National Insurance rate for employees goes up 10% from 10% to 11%. This is an overall tax increase for someone on normal rate tax in this country of approximately 3%. This was totally snuck in by the back door a year ago but only comes into force today.
This is just what we need... A tax rise just as we're going into recession. Jeez, what planet are these people on? Just because it won't affect ministers with all the back-handers that they get doesn't mean it doesn't affect normal people. I know this money is meant to be hypothecated in full to the NHS but I can't be the only person who's thinking "will they even see a penny of this extra cash?"
My guess is they won't and the upcoming budget will include a raft of other sneaky backdoor stealth taxes that people won't notice until it's too late... Expect the personal allowances to be frozen (AGAIN) at the very least. I also reckon that the upper limit for National Insurance will be synchronised with the upper limit for normal rate taxation. This will allow future chancellors to increase the NI "super-rate" of 1% quite simply.
The council tax also went up a significant amount this year, around 13%. Councils are blaming the government for not giving them enough and the government is blaming the councils for spending too much. Blah blah blah. All I know is that I pay nearly 20 UKP a week seemingly just to get my bin emptied.
This government has turned out to be a proper old-fashioned tax-and-spend Labour government. What a shame.
Why are houses money pits and why does nobody bother to tell you before you buy one?
I mean, it's just madness. Your parents (may their souls rest in peace) don't bother telling you. Nor does any older sibling you may have.
One day you decide to move out, either because you've found that special someone or because you just want to move out and do stuff on your own. In England you've really got three choices...
1. Rent a house from the local council or housing trust.
2. Rent a house from a private landlord.
3. Purchase a house, either new-build or one someone's living in.
Now then, I'll deal with each of these in order...
1. Rent a house from the local council or housing trust.
The qualifying question for this type of housing appears to be.
1a. Are you a single parent?
If you can answer yes to this question and you happen to be about 16 or so and don't want anything to do with the father you've got it made. The council will find you somewhere to live faster than you can say "oooh yeah, right there baby." They will almost certainly let you have the place free as the government will give you a 100% rebate on the rent and the council tax payable. The only thing you have to do is collect your child benefit and and your dole money.
Let me make this plain, I have absolutely nothing against single parents who are single because of relationship breakdown / loss of partner etc. but I do have a problem with the 16 year olds who get pregnant to get a house. I pay enough tax already and shouldn't be expected to subsidise them further.
2. Rent a house from a private landlord.
This carries it's risks as well as there are fairly obviously good landlords and bad. A good one will maintain the house for you etc., and a bad one won't. You also should expect to stump up a large security deposit and not expect to get it back as the landlord will undoubtably find something that you have broken or not left in it's original condition when you leave. The rent also tends to be about as much as you would expect to pay when buying a house or more.
However, it would appear to be a good compromise if you find a housemate who can share all the bills / rent etc. with you.
3. Buy your house.
Given the current overinflated state of the market expect to pay a fortune to live anywhere. London would be especially bad with 250,000 UKP buying you somewhere the size of a postage stamp. That sort of money in the North West of the country not too far from Manchester would buy a really nice house with four or five bedrooms as long as you didn't want to live in Didsbury or Wilmslow (the latter being where all the footballers and soap starts live near Manchester).
Expect to stump up at least 5 - 10% of the value up-front as a deposit. Essentially the more the better as the lower the mortgage will be.
This option means you get the joy of "improving" the house yourself. That means spending on all the repairs etc etc etc. This is where the "money pit" idea comes in as no matter how nice it is and how well maintained the house has been you'll always find something you want to change or improve and you never realise just how much money you end up spending on a house until you've got one yourself.
My word. Hasn't this been quite the rant?
Time for me to start looking at moving out of the country, like soooo many other people are doing I think.
I'm going to lie down and get my composure back now. Don't bother flaming me for any view expressed above, you'll just get ignored.