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We are a 6 figure income couple and had very little saved and not much cash lying around the preverbal". '...don't have $500 for an emergency" that was us. The big thing was debt all kinds of it, cars mortgage (although our home isn't a high price one), student loans for our kids, and of course credit cards. One day we just got sick of being broke and went total scorched earth and became frugal overnight. Paid it all off, it took almost 5 years but now we have no debt and this year our savings rate is 50% on basically the same income that had us perpetually broke. So for us it is mainly staying out of debt and watching our spending, at first it was a real effort to save in our HISA and 401Ks but now it's actually fun watching our money grow. No car or vacation or neighborhood is worth being broke or financially unstable.

Honestly, thank you for explaining this in a clear and concise manner and yet adding humour at points. This is why I enjoy watching your channel. You help break down complex issues into layman's terms. Keep up the good work

Weekly reminder to never forget what our elites did to us during the pandemic. Many future high earning young people will surely emigrate for a better life elsewhere.

Nice video. I got sick of paying so much tax, having climbed into the additional rate band. Paying over 60% in tax for a decent proportion of my income (loss of personal allowance). So I went part-time. There comes a point, where it’s just not worth working yourself into an early grave, and paying far more tax than most for the privilege. ‘Progressive’ tax systems sound great as a sound-bite, but they discourage people from reaching the top of their professions. Particularly when used in such a ham-fisted manner as the U.K.

Jokes on them, they can't tax you if you don't make any money.

I see what you're doing Damien. Thanks for using your platform and your reach to give us all a voice.

I took early retirement at 52. I was sick of the government spending my tax money to make my life worse. I have a simple lifestyle and am unlikely to pay tax ever again. This makes me very happy.

Ronnie Pickering had me chuckling for 5 mins straight. Thank you for making me smile this weekend 😂

We get taxed to death in the UK and have nothing to show for it

I am 53 and 14 years or so from retirement. The UK feels old,stuffy and set in its ways. There is no pride in the country, vision to move forward, reward workers appropriately. We just seem helpless, afraid and choked by the upper classes who grab much of the wealth. It feels like someone many years ago pressed the pause button and that’s how it stayed.

We need fairer council tax - but also land tax. Re inheritance tax - what I find unfair is that the government prints money like crazy, slashes interest rates, creates asset bubbles, throwing gasoline on the fire pushing small terraced family homes in the SE to 500k, and then has the gall to put the threshhold at 325k. Re Amazon - I note how no one mentions Apple - which is the biggest tech company and the ones that pays the least tax. It agreed something like 0.01 percent tax in ireland.

Mate, one of your best. The quality of what you’re doing now is epic. The edit here specifically was really on another level, but the data and insight were also top-notch. It’s been great to watch the evolution of your work. 👏👏

I just wish your channel would get more reach around the country. Can see your trying to help change for the better and we’re all fully on board, keep going mate!

As I near the end of my business life I would (A) happily pay 100% inheritance tax, uncapped council tax, corrected corporation tax and other wealth taxes if (B) MPs, councillors, civil servants ,tax collectors and other administrators saw their positions as a duty to society instead of a perk, and that they were subject to significant jail time for corruption collusion and other wasteful mis-use of my not insignificant tax contributions. It Won’t happen like that of course. We will get A without a sniff of B.

Taxing people more isn’t the answer. How about shrinking government. The borrowing and money printing is out of control. Taxing people’s homes or the inheritance passed on for future generations does nothing for the poorest in society anyway. A smaller government and thus need for less tax income is the answer. Just doesn’t suit to say it I guess…? 😬🤷‍♂️

Moving into my zero income tax or NI phase soon. Can’t avoid Council tax or vat but done what I can to align my lifestyle to my tax free allowance.

This is why I'm maxing my Stocks and Shares ISA as much as I can, currently at 90K at 28. I'm hoping it grows and compounds to a significant size so I make most of my wealth tax free.

Instead of governement looking to raise all this extra tax, why not massively reduce the size of government, there are billions that could be cut from expenditure.

"who will pay?" "ronnie pickering!" 😂😂😂 that had me

These uncertainties will always be there. Thing is, every once in a while, the market does something so stupid it takes your breath away. If you're not ready for it, you shouldn't be in the market business. or get you a skilled practitioner.

Just why the constant clarion call for people to be taxed more and more and more! We might as well just work and give 100% of our earnings back to the government so our labour is free! I have a suggestion, let's introduce voluntary taxes category, so these 'morally superior, virtue signalling' people always crying out for more taxes can voluntary pay more taxes from their earnings; somehow, I have a feeling they won't!

Love your channel Damo. The balance between accessibility and eye for detail is unmatched. Top man, keep going what you’re doing.

2:00 Hold on, where is the evidence that pumping money into the economy created inflation? Where is the evidence for this? 1:53 Debt has to be paid? You are not doing this via tax, when has tax been successful in paying off debt? Why the urgency, given that UK can create bonds, targeting big spenders will bring inflation rates down, increasing interest rates for ISA's and raising VAT on luxury items will help reduce the inflation rate, tax very high-income earners will also reduce the inflation rate because they would spend more.

well my council now wants an extra 40 quid on top of the council tax to empty my green bin, its a joke

I am fed up. Explaining fiscal drag and taxes to people around is pointless, they do not want to know, they do not want to understand. It only matters that there is bigger number on payslip. Thank you for your work Damien.

One of your BEST uploads ever..😊😮

these video's just get better. informative and entertaining in a no non-sense, easily understandable way. thank-you.

Great video for many reasons, but I’d love to hear you discuss the other side, the government spending side. You touched on some, but how about other areas of government spending which could be minimised, and the areas which could be dismantled? Thanks for the content, very watchable.

It's almost like there isn't an easy answer to a complex problem... Thanks for covering this topic so well, Damien. Great video.

I think one thing you missed out, for why tax burden has risen so much and will keep rising, is the fact the biggest employer in UK (the public sector) still run gold plated defined benefits pension schemes. Private sectors companies stopped offering them long time ago as they were far too expensive. The rising cost of public sector = higher tax burden and/or lower quality of public services.

See the thing is Damien the ideas you've laid out are really good, and that's why they won't happen. The system is broken by design

The ronnie pickering call back got me, I love how you sprinkle some lighthearted quips into what can be very dry but important material!

So many people seem so desperate to be work slaves... especially in the UK. Very odd indeed.

They need to cut benefits right down for a start. Why do so many people get their rent paid and an income to not work and sponge off hard workers.

Damo you should seriously consider becoming a politician! We need your voice in the parliament! You already got my vote! 😁

Scrap inheritance tax and release all the people and talent employed in setting up schemes to avoid paying it.

I now have a better understanding of the tax system and the money involved and really enjoy the way you deliver it. People like you are really helping to inform how money systems work and have a fare and multi sided opinion. I look forward to more financial learning .

In that last 4 years there has been £100 billion in waste by the government

They can reform the taxes and it wouldn't make any difference. The goverment would just find more ways to waste the additional money.

The answer is not to tax more, but for the government to better manage the money they have.

You almost gave me a heart attack with this title mate xD I saw it and was like "wtf did the government come up with now?!" - Great content mate! Can't wait to see the podcast

I basically just stopped working and paying tax due to all the nonsense over the last few years. The equation just isnt worth it anymore. MANY people I know who pay high/additional rates are either just retiring early, or leaving the country Tax "the rich" more, you'll have even less tax. Also reduces the incentive to work harder and take higher paying jobs

A very good video. Again. I'm really enjoying this channel and your carefully balanced, data lead, analysis. Thank you

Definitely tax the Welsh 🤣

Over taxing individuals destroy the incentive to work and is generally counter productive (tax receipts often go down when income tax rates go up). Unfortunately we have too many people taking out the system and too few paying in. We need a grown up conversation of how we can cut government spending fairly because we can't endlessly keep increasing tax to spend on benefits.

The problem with inheritance tax on a farm, you have to liquidate the farm to pay the taxes. And all that generational knowledge goes away, also.

Great to have you, your detailed and clear explanations...back hopefully more to come!

love the history behind taxation. never knew about number of bricks. heard about the window tax from the saying 'daylight robbery'.

I have purchased this book after you mentioned it in a previous video. Not finished it yet but there are some interesting ideas in it that we all should have an open mind on. As the book highlights we will ultimately have to pay more in “tax” but we need to make sure that everyone contributes on an equitable basis.

Why does the Government need so much tax? What's it spending so efficiently on?

What right does the government have to tax wealth in the first place? I want a full audit of the entire government framework, the results of which should be done by an independent body and make the results public at the same time the government see them. Until the government is wasting precisely zero public funds, they have no right to raise taxes any more than they already are. The same goes for inheritance tax, that's money that's already had tax on it. So what if they are "blind luck" - we don't tax lottery winnings. They aren't blind luck, if I invest in the future of my children so they can benefit, and subsequently my grandchildren can benefit, that is not luck.

Disagree on the majority of the points. We need people who can spend it more wisely, not career politicians. Get rid of most of them and replace some with finance professionals time served. Increase taxes will make the rich move away. 100% of nothing is what we would end up with. Introduce more bands in corporation tax, small companies pay less tax and create growth, jobs and competition. Big companies cannot escape such a big market like the UK. Then completely overhaul and cut benefits! Leches of society.

My friend (27) and I (27) were having a discussion about how in our relatively short tax paying lives the government has wasted so much money. To the point that it makes sense why people would generally vote to reduce taxes (Tory) after seeing decades of the same wasteful cycle. Often being on the side of "tax cutting" is framed as selfish or anti-social but IF the government is going to create monetary black holes when instead you could keep more of your income, I know what I would vote for.

How about removing the charitable tax status of religious institutions?

Best tax solution I have ever seen is a single consumption tax. Make corporation tax zero. Income tax zero. Every tax zero except for consumption tax (ie. VAT). It solves the entire system in every aspect and from all angles.

Hullo Damien, a great video as always. The fundamental problem is that taxation can never keep up with government spending. We're already well over the Laffer curve with so many working age, capable people deciding to not bother working due to the tax rates. Government must spend less. Despite the protestations that waste cannot be cut this simply isn't true. For example, why is the government meddling with the energy market? Why are thre 1400 quangos duplicating the role of government departments? Why does government then give charities money to do the jobs it has been paid to do? We are a services economy. We need a small population of high skill individuals and lots and lots of abundant energy to suppoort our high tech, highly mechanised indusrial base. The government is forcing us the other way - it has been for 25 years. High industrial costs and high taxes but a massive labour pool mean wages get suppressed but welfare keeps rising, meaning more and more people are forced out of the workforce and into permanent dependency in one form or another. This creates a cycle of tax, welfare, borrowing that the state refuses to stop because it's poliically unpalatable. The freezing of the tax allowances was pure socialist spite. The current state is like a slapstick comedy of a man desperately trying to plug a leak with each hand, foot, knee, nose, cheek to stave off the inevitable - turning off the tap and getting a low tax house in order but instead it is continuing with an ever more oppressive and abusive regime. The Singaporean tax code is 250 pages. Switzerland's about the same. Ours is over 170,000, not withstanding amendments and examples.

I didn't even need to win lmao

The question should be - why do we cumulativly have to pay so much tax, where the fuck is it going - and is it being spent well

If you increase the council tax its the tenants pay it so that doesn't reflect the landlords wealth

fairest way to tax everyone correctly is remove all taxes and just adjust the tax on anything you buy, the rich pay more as they spend more

Your videos really are world class

Sounds like a lot will have spent a lifetime paying income tax to build wealth for retirement, to now loose wealth in a wealth tax.

Some great points on London property...but no council tax is due on vacant property. There are empty £1m houses held by foreign nationals and shell companies, which gain value at the rate of 7% ish per year. Sure you'll get capital gains...unless the property is sold as part of a Ltd company. Corp tax should be lowered to attract businesses to base themselves here...I agree the point of sale should be where the Corp tax is paid. I've said for a while raising the vat threshold would make purchases cheaper for consumers and help drive spending. No easy fix for sure. The next labour government will no doubt raise taxes further that'd for sure.

Damien could you please do a sketch on the top 50 companies tax payments on companies House showing the public how little tax these companies ACTUALLY PAY ON PROFIT!!!Don't forget the other top 50 companies that don't register tax in this country that still receive uk money and offshore accounts that don't pay any tax!!!!

The tax rate thresholds need to automatically change with the CPI or some other inflationary measure; MPs should need to vote each year (with a record of who voted of course) to stop a change in the thresholds. Otherwise you are retroactively changing the intent of the rate thresholds that were originally made into law. It's maddening what Fiscal Drag has done. More people need to be upset about this abhorrent policy to freeze rates until 2028 or whatever it is now.

You knocked it out of the park with this one Damo, best video so far (and I've been subscribed for a while now). Keep it up!

The thing young people don't get is that the massive free healthcare and pensions will NEVER come to them. They will get sweet FA at best!

To really change things, the way politicians are appointed and also removed should be overhauled. Wealthy Eton elites with good connections that manage to eschew into high ranking decision making positions, that can bollocks up their given area of responsibility with no accountability. Take a look at the average health minister, or education minister, or transport minister. Did they commit their working life to know their area of responsibility and rise above all others to earn the respect and admiration of their peers, or did they get given the cabinet job because their second cousin was in the same dorm as the PM, and had 6 holiday homes in the same area of the Caymen islands? Until politicians are incentivised to give a shit about their decisions and acions, they will continue to be self-serving gravy-train riders instead of work for the people. How many watchers of this video feel that the government works hard for them, rather than the other way around?

I think this may very well be one of the best videos I've seen on KZfaq in 2023. It's criminal that you don't have more followers and views of this masterpiece. Thank you for creating such well informed and compelling material.

my dad saw this coming 50 years ago .... our reliance on the social system is expensive

If the UK or Europe are going to get any kind of dynamism back, they need to go in the opposite direction. High taxes is not a good thing for long-term development, people need to come to grips with that fact.

I have always maintained that we should adopt a ‘flat tax'. 10% tax on everyone, regardless of wealth expenses and loopholes, on ALL INCOME OF ANY KIND above the £12k threshold. I say more tax would be raised overall and let’s face it, if you make 20 million a year you can certainly afford £2m tax whereas those making the national average would pay less than half what the do now.

Taxing the rich may create more income, but if the government focuses on growing the economy we all win, the population has more money, and the government get more in tax revenue. The US have achieved this much better than the UK and all EU states. So you statement at the end really nails it - another great vid BTW.

This was a great video, thanks for making it. I'll definitely check out Paul's book as well.

Basically PAYE you are forced to pay it all - self employed you can tax plan

Inheritance tax is not fair for most people: You are taxed throughout your life on the money YOU earn, you are taxed on interest and investments you make with whats left, your taxed everytime you buy most things, then whatever you have left you leave to your kids and they are taxed on money, you were taxed on as you earned it, after you invested it and then after you left it. Tax, tax, tax. So no inheritance tax is not 'moral'. Other than that it is pretty decent video and argument

Thank you so much for talking about Hartlepool, my home town! Council tax is so high here that people dread and despise having to pay it. For a Band D prioerty, it's well over £200 a month! We've had leaflets through the door saying that around half of it goes towards social housing, but I can't shake the feeling of distaste that a chunk of what I'm paying is going towards the (MANY) people in my town who CBA to work. Would love to see a video about the government reforms forcing people to actually seek employment while leeching off the system.

30% of earners pay 90% of income tax, the highest earning tax for the uk. If you’re looking at increasing the tax revenue, surely these 30% are more than playing their weight

My parents died aged 94 this year, I am the executor and believe me I can’t believe how much I am still paying out for little things. Bloody gas and electric standing charged £60 a month incl VAT. Excepted small value estate, probate been 6 months heard nothing. Property decaying. All money frozen - bloody civil service. Had to go through their bank accounts for 7 years. I would never volunteer to be an executor. Iht is going to affect a lot more with value of properties in south. House insurance for their tiny unoccupied bungalow is £500 for 6 months incl vat. Was only £120 when alive. Taxes alive taxes when dead

I agree with most of the suggestions, i mentioned the inheritance tax idea to a couple of local canvassers just last week. We need more money in the living people's pockets. An unpopular idea is to phase out gold plated govenment defined benefit pensions that have caused such a disparity in our country and paying them just drains our resources

I’m planning on leaving the country for a business opportunity- need to figure out how not to pay tax here

The problem is Paul Johnson is part of the current problem. WEF, IFS, BOE, FED, ONS. See the pattern? I think you have also ignored inflation - another stealth tax.

I agree with Paul. I dont mid paying extra tax if the government spend it wisely (e.g. on the NHS) and dont waste it.

Ronnie Pickering!

All by design.....including convid!!

Yeah I'm not paying any more tax. What we get in return is terrible now. I'm moving to the US. If the government think we are trapped here and simply "have" to pay they are sadly mistaken.

All this presumes the rich should pick up even more of the burden, where they already pay most of it. The actual solution is that everyone should contribute more and it would make far more of a difference. The rich will just leave if you throttle them harder.

Don’t mind my taxes going into education, health etc Totally opposed to it going to fund wars in Ukraine, weapons for Israel etc.

The problem with the Council tax idea is that any increase is simply passed on to tenants who are already struggling with ridiculously high rents, thanks to the housing crisis... another problem that requires politicians to be brave.

I don’t think the pensioners should pay more tax. It’s easy for us as young people to point the finger at them but we have to appreciate they were in our position once. They worked hard and we don’t know what it’s like to be old and from the looks of it they have it just as hard as we do. The state pension doesn’t cover half of even the poorest of pensioners. They even pay taxes on it which is just awful. Plus we have to remember the pensioners actually keep the economy healthy and stable because they put money into it

The other way is to cut expenditure. For me the sending of Covid infected care home residents back into care homes was a deliberate policy particularly in Scotland. Tot up all the excess deaths that continue to happen whether they are middle aged or old and you get a serious amount of money that is not required for the future. Why else would they not even discus it in Parliament. 20MPs for half an hour on a Friday afternoon.

Yes council and inheritance taxs need a rethink, rebanding, but governments wont do this as it'll loose them votes and upset their wealthy friends.

Life Lesson no'1: never trust any politician. Life Lesson no2: never trust the msm. If you haven't learnt these lessons by now, why?

When it comes to retirement, me being 37 can easily imagine by the time I’m 60 the retirement age would be 72, and at 70 increases to 75 so in effect forever chasing a moving target which I would never hit

I've been saying it for a long time now, we don't have a government or leader strong enough, and have not had for a long time, to make the tough decisions that need to be made.

Great video!!!! 🙏. I do disagree with Paul about annual net asset wealth taxes, they are an untapped resource, the key is to make them very progressive (ie barely noticeable for them) and gradual eg 1/4% then 1/2% etc etc and be pragmatic Eg exclude primary residence up to 1m value. I lived in NL for 13 years and it was part of annual tax return, they also have them in France, Belgium,Spain,Portugal, Switzerland so don’t buy it can’t be done without people leaving. Consider it rationally, a person in uk with 10m cash in a no interest savings account will pay no more tax than a person with 1k in the same account….whereas in countries with wealth taxes they will have a tax bill for that, it’s daft not to tax wealth and is just part of the elite / media / Tory narrative to persuade us chumps that it’s impossible to do without mass exodus of wealth.

Tax relief for people who pay for private health insurance.

17:29 When the shit of C19 hit the fan the people at the top certainly 'cleaned up' didn’t they. The system isn’t broken, it’s corrupted and going along nicely thank you!

I left the UK because the State tried to make a tax cow out of me. Enjoy your farm.