[mnahkies]

The UK tax system also has a bunch of unfortunate cliffs, and tapers that create >60% marginal tax rates and worse. There's a calculator here that illustrates it well https://tax-cliffs.britishprogress.org/calculator

The childcare cliff edge is probably the worst, but the personal allowance taper isn't ideal either as it's compressed over a relatively short income range

And of course all the thresholds remain frozen, creating plenty of fiscal drag on top.

[rwmj]

The Economist has this crazy graph of UK VAT thresholds and how they are causing companies to stay small, to keep their turnover under the threshold which avoids a lot of paperwork. It's the most infuriating thing, we are literally throttling our companies, the engines of growth, because of some accounting stupidity.

Graph: https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=600,quality=10... from this article: https://www.economist.com/britain/2024/04/22/how-to-fix-brit...

[voakbasda]

Hey, at least they can exist. Many businesses in the US can no longer exist at small scale, because the barriers to entry are too high because the entrenched interests achieved total regulatory capture.

[ajsnigrutin]

Same in slovenia for eg. kindergarten prices, 1eur over the line, 90eur more per month in fees.

[benjiro29]

I remember when my grandfather died, and my grandmother got part of his pension.

It put her pension above a max threshold for old age / low pension (cheaper phone bill, no tv taxes, ...) by, ... hold your hats... 2 Euro.

Father called the service ... "sorry, we can not do anything about that".

She lost over 100 Euro in benefits because technically... she was not low pension anymore but was financially WAY more poor then when my grandfather was alive.

So when my grandfather was alive, their combined pension was higher, they qualitied as having a low pension. When only *part* of my grandfather pension got combined into my grandmothers. Well, now your not poor...

I do not remember the exact pensions but it was a massive haircut, with the insulting on top, losing those benefits. The lost benefits made it from threading water, to drowning.

Without my dad financial help, she will have lost the house. Ironically, if she did not get my grandfathers pension part, she will have qualitied for more social assistance, and will have been better off.

Sometimes, those lines really screw people over.

[TeMPOraL]

> Sometimes, those lines really screw people over.

Another angle is how they affect the living. Plenty of young adults delay moving out from their parents, or starting a career, because changes in combined household income would cross one of those magic threshold, and ending up screwing the parents and younger siblings for life.

Such delaying may not be as immediately critical to the person, but it alters the course of their lives in significant ways.

[subscribed]

What's most infuriating it's only the job income, work, that's taxed like this.

Passive income of any sort? Bribes from the lobbying groups? Absolutely not.

[int_19h]

This is how you tell genuinely left-wing politicians from "free market progressives": look at whom they are trying to tax.

[subscribed]

Exactly.

[TacticalCoder]

> The UK tax system also has a bunch of unfortunate cliffs, and tapers that create >60% marginal tax rates and worse.

Oh I don't doubt it. In my native country of Belgium the tax rate can go to 69% and more: 50% income tax (used to be as high as 52.5% and maybe even 55%, don't remember) and then, on top of that, an addition 19% social wellfare tax. That's not mentioning stuff like, if you manage to buy stocks with what you have left, 30% state tax (+ crazy bank fees) on any dividends you receive from those stocks.

And then the brand new (1st jan 2026) 10% tax on any capital gain, once again: in addition to all the already existing taxes.

Add some arbitrary decisions on top of that, where if you happen to maybe have bought/sell a bit too many stocks or if you happen to have managed to put a too big part of your wealth into stocks, they may consider you're a "professional investor" and then your capital gains are taxed at your income rate.

Some are going to say: "Oh but create a company, get back the VAT, do this/do that".

I don't want to basically become a fiscal lawyer just to not be assraped by ever more taxes.

Instead of trying to "optimize", I just voted --before they'll introduce an exit tax (I'm sure that's coming)-- with my feet, my money and the future wealth I was going to create and left the country.

For what was I getting in return? According to a flemish university an estimated 55 000+ undocumented illegal migrants are now living in the capital city of Belgium, Brussels, alone. That's 5% of the population of the city that are undocumented migrants. They don't live in proper conditions. They're a drag on the economy. They're not happy, they're not thriving. Locals aren't happy either.

I didn't vote for this.

To me once politicians go too far, that's what they deserve: the middle class living the city in drones and being replaced by poor people. As I tell of my friends and family who also left the city: I just went a bit further and left the country altogether.

Following the example of my friend and ex-neighbor who did so decades ago: he left for SoCal (btw I didn't go to the US) and created two startups. Second one was a big hit. Belgium (and the EU) saw exactly zero return of his incredible drive and talent.

Another recent statistics: 40% of the people of Brussels are living close to the poverty line.

But at least socialists got the utopia they dreamed of: they're sure to never lose an election again. The middle class is dying in Brussels. The poor won't vote against socialism.

I just packed and left and advice anyone who can flee a sinking ship to do so. Many countries in Europe have decided to commit suicide and to turn themselves into slums.

I think this is just the beginning for may EU cities/countries: there's much more pain ahead --and although AI is going to be used as a scapegoat-- this has absolutely nothing to do with AI and all to do with political decisions.

It pains to see how my native city has been dragged into poverty... But good riddance.

As for the next gen: from day one I raised my kid in english. At 11 y/o she's totally fluent and our thinking was simple: english is at least understood mostly everywhere in the world. She'll have to move because I fear it's not just my native city that is toast.