Manchester City News 24/7Writer: Tudor 
Date:Monday August 31 2009
Time: 8:40AM
UK time is: 01:43:23
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Living In The UK & Being Taxed To Death
Beware! As of midnight tonight (31/08/09) the British government is adding another two pence of duty towards a litre of fuel.
And if that is not enough, VAT is reverting back to 17.5% and the higher rate of personal income tax for the top earners is to soar to 50%.
Fuel Duty
From midnight tonight the price of a litre of fuel is to rise by another 2p, meaning the average price within the UK is close to £1.10.
VAT
From 1 January 2010, the Chancellor is adamant the current rate of VAT is to rise from 15% to 17.5%.
Income Tax
From April 2010 those of you who are on the top rate of income tax will have to fork out half your salary. Which means 50% of your money goes directly to the government.
What Does It Mean?
A few weeks ago I listened to a football agent on SSN (can't remember his name) who said many of his football players on his books based in the Premier League were telling him to listen to any offers from clubs abroad. Why he asked? The overall opinion was simple. They do NOT want to lose half of their income to the British taxman.
The other issue for overseas players, and of course the average bloke on the street is the Euro exchange rate. Today I see Sterling is worth approximately 1.10 Euros. In essence, if we continue to tax everyone at the proposed rate, the UK will see a player exodus, plus looking further a field, a business 'brain drain'.
I am not in practice aligned to any political party, in fact as far as I can see the three main parties are as bad as each other. But why, when many of us are struggling to keep a roof over our head, put a meal on the table and clothe our children does the government have to screw the average person to the wall?
Anyone old enough to remember the riots of the early 80's will know that one of the reasons for the civil unrest was social poverty.
2009/10
As expected, crime is on the increase with house burglaries, shoplifting and fraud on the increase. Similarities to the 80's? I'm afraid so.
Who remembers the famous headline from the Sun, the day of the general election, 1993 I think it was when the tabloid published...
'If Labour win, can the last person leaving the UK, please close the door'. Looks like a similar headlines will be in the making, and soon.
I love being English, I love my Country, nevertheless, when I come to take early retirement (2018) and unless the quality of life improves I can see many of my peers, and for that matter, me, looking at packing my bags and moving abroad.
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Your Comments
Haha, the ONE club in england that gets big players with huge salaries - triple their old wages. And you moan about a coming exodus. You realize that you are the only club in England that got big names this summer? And on top of that, from your opponents. I like it - really like it - I'm fed up with top four. I hope you or us, or both will get into top four this year. But don't start moaning about money, at least not until you are independent from your oil-money!!!!
NorwaYid
I think we at City may be immune to a player exodus, but clubs like Spurs might struggle.
tudor
Well I heard a couple of weeks back that the government are looking to make footballers exempt from this ruling as they are obviously worried about people moving abroad and missing out on millions of taxes every year. Common sense must surely prevail in the end though on the other hand Gordon Brown is currently Prime Minister..............................................
Kevinho
Don't lets mix up our site with politics.
Wswilly3
I really don't expect to see such blatant political campaigning on a Man City (or any other football website). And I don't appreciate my club being linked with the views of someone who is so clearly anti-progressive in terms of their politics.
The averge man & woman benefits greatly from a progressive system of taxation. They benefit from the universal provision of healthcare free at the point of delivery, being able to educate their kids through school without worrying about how they're going to pay for it, and from all the other public services that most people just take for granted on any given day.
Fuel duties have been frozen in recent years, and the cost of motoring has fallen dramatically during previous decades - this at the cost of the environment and congestion on roads. Have a look at the houses around you - how many more cars are there fighting for parking spaces compared with, say, 30 years ago - hardly a sign that people are being priced off the roads is it?
The basic rate of tax has dropped in the last decade or so, and if tax rises are needed to start a process of trying to bring the country's books back into balance after the big spending incurred to avoid financial meltdown & a long recession, I'd much rather those already on huge mouth-watering salaries (including those bankers who brought about the crisis in the first place) were asked to pay a bit more rather than those struggling to make ends meet at the other end.
As for VAT? Well I wouldn't be surprised if you were one of the people shouting that the 2.5% reduction would make "no difference to them" when it was brought in, but are nevertheless just waiting to moan like hell when the rate is restored to what it was just 12 months ago. Just like you probably moan about over-paid footballers and how out of touch with the common fan they have become.
So in summary please keep your politicking for your Daily Mail website forums, and leave us to enjoy this tremendous start that City are having to the season - long may it continue.
K Tempest
Agree with K Tempest. I also feel I have to add: if you think it's bad here, then I suggest you think about how other countries have it. We may work long hours with high taxes and few breaks, but we earn more than most people in the other countries we could emigrate to. On top of that, I'd rather live under Gordon Brown than a more oppressive or all-consuming system such as the US or French governments. I'm pretty sure that if you were to go to any country and live there long enough you'd be able to come up with an essay full of reasons to pack your bags and leave.
Falastur
Exactly what I wanted - debate. Perhaps some of our members living and working overseas might like to comment and tell us what life is like in their part of the world.
tudor
The cost of living in France remains high, but as in the past decade remains it all stays very frugal. Buying houses, getting loans etc remain a tough task. You don't see that many new motors knocking about, I can tell you. Impact on football? Ligue 1 remains a feeder league for Spain and England and the top earners get nowhere near the Premier League levels of pay.
Johnny Baguette
tudor, why should'nt the footballer's and the bankers pay half of there OBSCENE wages in tax, struggle every year to pay my season ticket at COMS to supplement the wages, and i do sometimes an 60 hour weekto pay bills and the like, so for the foriegn 'superstars' to ply there trade and do less than 20 hours a week and get in excess of 5 times my annual wage per week, why should'nt they pay for the PRIVILAGE of living in this country and earning very good living at it, as they wont have to worry about paying the GAS bill or redundancy will they?
cityman51
At the end of the day players will not come here if they don't get paid what they will abroad and the league will suffer as a result. Even garbage players like Jermain Pennant have moved to Spain and have quoted 24% tax laws as being a major reason for this. We should be all right as our club are paying higher wages than most clubs and without wishing to start a political debate people freely criticise the players for what they earn by saying when is enough, enough but what about the people that wish to take 50% of what they earn off them - When does enough become enough then? I don't begrudge people for what they earn if they make the best of their talent and I doubt that any people being critical on this thread would like seeing 50% of what they earn being taken away from them, it doesn't matter what they earn as governments are in danger of being even greedier than the players who fight and wear the colours of the club that fans support week in, week out.
Kevinho
When you hear people talking about "progressive" taxation helping the lower classes, think about this: the EPL is the world's premier football brand, and while many players are nominally foreign, they live in England and spend in England. And these huge clubs employ thousands of britons. Should the tax system drive players to Spain, the EPL will lose value and will employ many fewer British people, and the big stars will spend less of their money in Manchester, London, etc. How this helps the lower class, I cannot see. I suppose if you see Gordon Brown's spending as better than a vibrant economy, then there you go.
americancitynut
on petrol by the way, I've recently been on a road trip to Holland, where the price of unleaded was £1.34/litre, in Belgium it was £1.29/litre and in France it was £1.20, so compartivley we're not too bad.
arthur7171
Sorry to tell you guys in the UK but petrol is only 60p per litre here in Thailand.
Thaibluefan
TBF, can you send me a few billions litres please.
buzz lightyear
Its £0.89 per litre here. Spain is going through its worst recession and there is no way i would go back to Britain. Temp has not dropped below 30 for over a month and we beat Barca which has given me bragging rights NOT to be turned down. Happy days.
EddieBell
Go your Vital T shirt Ed?
Johnny Baguette
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