Lootman wrote:XFool wrote:Au contraire! Bring back "witholding" - the old system (pre Osborne) was much simpler for most people. I didn't have to bother with SA, Tax returns.
What could be simpler than that?
One reason to prefer handling it manually rather than via PAYE is that you can pay the tax much later. So for example the income I am getting right now will not be taxed until as late as January 2025.
So what? Anyway, with 'PAYE' the tax is not taken in one lump at the start of the tax year, it is taken month by month throughout the year, automatically. All I'd ever have to do, if I wanted to, was very simply work out the figures to see if I agreed with them. I invariably did.
Lootman wrote:I have not been under PAYE this century and am fine with that. I prefer controlling the process. I just send a cheque to the taxman once a year. No withholding.
I'd give anything to return to the previous arrangements. Simplicity wins it every time with me!
(Who sends "
a cheque" these days? Unless you were just using a metaphor.)
I seem to remember when the current system of taxation was brought in by Osborne, reading in a HoC report that only a surprisingly small number of then ordinary rate taxpayers were affected (a couple of hundred thousand?), of which I was one.
It would be interesting to know now what proportion of normal rate taxpayers will need to start paying tax to HMRC. Many of those will have not the slightest idea about any of this. They may, like myself have only ever completed one or two tax returns over their entire working life - or none.
No wonder HMRC currently suspends their phone help lines for a portion of the year.