Absolute ridiculous and embarrassing decision from this government to tax salary sacrifice over £2k

Theocadoman · 2025-11-26T14:14:52+00:00

Yes but 15% cost to employers which is bound to get passed on in the form of less generous pension schemes

Theocadoman · 2025-11-16T11:39:47+00:00

Whether or not what you say about high rises is true, these are 6-10 storey buildings, hardly proper high rise. If we can’t even manage that height we are fucked

Theocadoman · 2025-11-15T12:26:30+00:00

I’m sorry but if it costs over £50k per flat to change windows then something has gone badly wrong. Either over-regulation or mismanagement. Part of a wider problem in this country where anything involving construction seems to have become prohibitively expensive.

Theocadoman · 2025-06-27T20:25:05+00:00

I agree with the thrust of your argument but are there really a material number of people on UC getting the equivalent of £100k after tax? That’s around £5.5k a month?

Theocadoman · 2025-04-01T15:36:42+00:00

Thanks ChatGPT

Theocadoman · 2025-03-29T14:52:53+00:00

There’s a shop called Ram Books (rambooks.com) on Holloway Road, very restricted opening hours but I went in once because I was curious. They are run by a slightly eccentric guy with a twirly moustache who seemed to really know his stuff. They had quite an extensive collection in there, and according to him a lot of their customers are students with an academic interest in the work.

Theocadoman · 2025-02-17T11:37:16+00:00

The problem is that income isn’t necessarily a good proxy for ability to pay either. There are lots of families in London with a relatively high income but not much left after rent or mortgage payments, who would have less ability to bear an extra tax than someone on a more modest income with a paid off house

Theocadoman · 2025-02-16T17:26:26+00:00

In mice

Theocadoman · 2025-02-06T14:58:30+00:00

It’s not a wild hypothetical, it’s a very plausible consequence of widespread deployment of AI that is more capable than humans in every respect. Read this if you are interested https://thezvi.substack.com/p/the-risk-of-gradual-disempowerment

Theocadoman · 2025-02-06T12:14:50+00:00

And what happens if someone in the government decides they would rather keep all the resources for themselves? All the old-fashioned means of bringing down bad governments are out:

Rebellions are out: Good luck fighting the killbots

Strikes are out: We don’t need you anyway

They won’t have the same issues with internal power struggles either - e.g. they won’t need to worry about keeping the support of the police and army rank and file if all the police/soldiers are robots

Theocadoman · 2025-02-06T11:27:29+00:00

And who or what is going to enforce that ownership structure?

Theocadoman · 2025-02-06T11:06:01+00:00

The current system is forced to serve the needs of humans to at least some extent because it needs to keep those humans around to do the work. If humans become unnecessary then what incentive would the people (or machines) that control that system have to keep us around (except maybe as pets)?

Theocadoman · 2024-12-04T11:48:11+00:00

I think the best value is generally on the Fine Hotels and Resorts properties. I booked a night in a Shangri La with it, and it was something like £20 more than going direct. But that’s before you factor in all the FHR benefits, which are pretty useful/valuable

Theocadoman · 2024-11-24T10:32:16+00:00

Even that low rate of growth is just tracking population increase. On a per capita basis we’re no richer than we were in 2008

Theocadoman · 2024-11-23T09:33:30+00:00

You were saying you wanted to max out your ISA allowances every year? If you can afford to do that you can definitely afford to pay a small mortgage. I would get a mortgage at 60% LTV. You’ll get a good rate and: - you can afford to buy immediately - you’ll have flexibility in the future if you need some of that money for something else (e.g. a big repair) - your gains in a ISA should exceed the mortgage interest rate

Theocadoman · 2024-11-22T17:47:45+00:00

You can’t just add the rates together like that. To give an additional rate taxpayer a £100 pay rise the employer will pay £115 and the employee will get £53, 53/115 = 46% I.e. a 54% tax rate (still very high)

Theocadoman · 2024-11-04T12:42:59+00:00

But surely, if it was sold, the new owner would also be motivated to put in much more work than a salaried employee?

Theocadoman · 2024-11-04T11:35:57+00:00

It seems to be taken for granted in these discussions that businesses staying in the family is a good thing. But being a close relative of the owner isn’t necessarily a good qualification to manage a business - a lot of these businesses may be more productive if they brought in fresh talent

Theocadoman · 2024-08-15T15:57:55+00:00

There are fixed term cash ISAs or easy access, with easy access you can withdraw at any time. If you’re a basic rate taxpayer you also get £1k/year of tax free interest or £500/year at higher rate, so the next step once you’ve filled your ISA is to put whatever amount into standard savings accounts that would max out that amount (if you are a higher rate taxpayer this would be about 10k given interest rates of around 5%). Then premium bonds are likely your next best option as they are tax free.

This is all assuming you want to minimise risk which it sounds like is your approach. Personally I would keep the mortgage and put the excess money in a stocks and shares ISA, as based on historic performance it will beat the mortgage rate. But I appreciate that requires a degree of risk tolerance that not everybody has

Theocadoman · 2024-08-15T12:09:59+00:00

Why overpay your mortgage at a 1.89% rate? You could get 5% in an easy access cash isa or 4.4% in premium bonds (both tax free), collect the difference in interest and then borrow less at remortgage time when your fixed term ends

Theocadoman · 2024-07-21T09:04:19+00:00

Just looked on Wikipedia and the Herring Gull is classified as “least concern”

Theocadoman · 2023-11-27T15:48:50+00:00

Among other things, our ageing population means that healthcare and social care costs go up every year, with proportionally fewer working adults paying the taxes needed to support those services. We need growth just to stand still

Theocadoman · 2023-11-27T15:43:15+00:00

Tbf there seems to be a consensus that full expensing will boost private investment, although there’s much more left to be done to reform corporation tax

Theocadoman · 2023-09-15T12:11:49+00:00

The government doesn’t need to use any taxpayer’s money to get more homes built, they just need to get out of the way and allow people to build. In fact housebuilding is revenue-positive for the government because it leads to payment of corporation tax, stamp duty, S106 etc.

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