bevinva

I was talking to a customer yesterday who had read about the new 50% tax rate going in the UK for those making 150,000 pounds or more. He wondered if he would have a similar lifestyle in the UK on his $350,000 income. I have been gone so long and left so young that I don't know what your taxes cover compared to here. What health care costs do you still pay out of pocket after taxes.
He is wondering about utility costs, car payments etc., I don't have a clue, can anyone give me some real life examples?

NYCbound

I think that someone earning just over £200k would do just fine!
This site: http://www.thesalarycalculator.co.uk/
gives you a good idea of what the take home pay would be on that.
The 50% isn't about yet.
But...
If it's a purely comparision to someone already living here and not for him moving over then healthcare costs would be £7 per prescription and private dental costs are (from my own exp) £18 per check up. Don't know about NHS dentist, been a while since seen I've met one.

Utitlities, well about £120pm for Gas and Electric combined (for a 3 bed semi).
Petrol £1.05 per litre (I know, shocking isn't it!!)
Road tax about £180py depending on car.

Does that help?

ChocolateBabz

I'll give you an example of our costs - bear in mind that this was a house in the suburbs of Aberdeen - so cheaper than middle of London for example and we are a family of 3.

4 bedroom new build house £295,000
Council Tax (equiv. Property Tax inc. water, trash) £2534.00 annual
Electric £34.00 per month
Gas £40.00 per month
Internet £25.00 per month
Phone £25.00 per month
House Insurance (Buildings & Contents) £31.00 per month
Car Insurance (Citroen C2 teeny weeny car - perfect driving record) £18.00 per month
Groceries £120.00 per week (Eating at home mostly - 1 meal out per month)
TV Licence £11.00 per month
Satellite TV £47.00 per month (movie pkg no sports)
Home Owners Assoc. £10.00 per month (not in all areas - new build mostly)
Petrol for 2 cars £200 per month (1 car for work/1 car not)

As we have National Health Care they only 'Health Care' costs you would have would be prescriptions (£7.20 each I think) or you can get a yearly plan which is cheaper if you have a lot of medication. It is difficult to get an NHS dentist but if you can it is cheaper than going private. If you do go private my annual check up was about £25 and costs for procedures vary. You can take out a dental plan but I don't know costs.

We owner our car outright so can't tell you about car payments and hubby had a company car.

Hope that helps a bit - I have probably forgotten something.

ChocolateBabz

Oh yeah road tax and an annual MOT for a car over 3 years old - that's never cheap - the mechanics always find something that needs repairing or replacing

bevinva

Thanks for the replies, he was raging on about it but I don't know how to compare the two. He was wondering about how much disposable income Brits have compared to the US. Obviously that varies too, he has a tad more than me here.

fatbrit

It's the sort of thing wannabe expats with no experience do. It's a pointless and impossible comparison.

Dan725

That about sums it up.

But on that kind of income, I doubt he'd be struggling, whether he was paying more taxes or not.

bevinva

He doesn't want to move, just show US is better. I told him I couldn't think of a way to directly compare. Basically he couldn't conceive that anyone would get enough out of living in a country to accept that kind of tax rate. Saying that I don't think anyone happily accepts it.

fatbrit

It's not better or worse; it's different!

I can remember when the UK tax rate hit 83% for the simple fact that my old man used to stop working six months into the year (I'm not working for that!) and irritate us instead. Bloody awful it was!