Salford Lad

hi kevin, sans better half here just had to reply to your post mate, well where do i start whinging about the construction industry in nz sand if thats what they call it? it,s like try,in to lay face brick with gravel, mixers avv,nt used 1 for the last 25 years & then came here & found out it,s all the norm here & to top it all they import them from buxton uk Health & safety ???? is there any in nz ??? right thats me off my soap box ( for the time being lol ) saying that the bonus,s are i don't have to work on sky scrapers any more & driving to work most days are a pleasure ( the southern alps covered in snow etc , the fantastic scenery ) to end , i made my bed gonna lay in it. ps mate keep the posts com-min they make me & sans day.

Bo-Jangles

Without being pedantic or checking the most recent rates for the back of an envelope calculation, you do need to consider the tax free pay in the UK is £7,475 per year or by your calculation of 2 for 1 that would be $15,000.00 There's no such band of tax free earning in NZ you pay 10.5% from the first cent.

Again by the same token, that's a lot of bread, milk and paint that you can no longer afford.

Best way is to do a real live check of some scenarios on both the UK and NZ Inland Revenue websites. I did it once a long time ago and found I was worse off here. Your mileage may of course vary!!!!!

DC10

Yes but it's the 13% N-Lie on everything over £100 a week that kills

I say "Lie" because it is framed to make people feel like it goes into a warm and fuzzy special fund to pay for nice things (instead of being instantly squandered like all other taxes)

Presume we are all aware of this great little calculator http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living

Bo-Jangles

Look the best thing is to do the real sums instead of supposing that you're always coming out second best in the UK.

I can't be arrised to do the full NI calculation, you don't pay it on everything you earn and you do have to pay ACC in NZ. Paying ACC doesn't afford you the same point of care health 'benefits' as the NI system does in the UK ,such as dentists and doctors costs. You can't exactly exclude or ignore the difference from our back of the fag packet calculation; BUT in terms of TAX alone you will be $1000 dollars a year worse off. Trying to put back the NI versus ACC differential might at best leave you even stevens.

NZ
$14000 10.5% $1470
$34000 17.50% $5950
$2000 30% $600
$50000 Total Tax $8020

UK
£7475 0% 0
£17525 20.0% 3505
£25000 Total Tax £3505

It is of course a much bigger and complex matter when you start to look at savings and investments, as you do have the ability to hive off money tax free to ISAs and Pension schemes in the UK, that's not an option here.

GST is 17.5% versus the 20% VAT in the UK, but again you don't spend all your UK income on VAT able items. In NZ there is no escaping the GST, it is on almost everything you spend, bar the mortgage and bank or finance charges - which is quite often why the very basic things such as bread, milk and butter are more expensive here.

Woodlea

That's cool, I thought Christchurch was cheaper than Aberdeen, and the weather's so much better, no wonder I love NZ - thanks!

No NHS dentists in Aberdeenshire either!

Bo-Jangles

Yes very interesting I see a pattern emerging:

Woodlea

I now know why you lot in the North Island are so fed up, perhaps you should all move to sunny Canterbury!

DC10

Both the UK and NZ have one obvious dominant city. It's hardly logical to compare provincial UK centres with NZ's dominant city

NB GST is 15% in NZ, and yes, it is unfair that it's applied to everything

ACC is nickels and dimes out of the paycheque compared to N-Lie. For info, my NICs last month were £327 taken out of a gross pay of £3,800.

Re: Transport. In the Southeast (the only place I have lived/would live in the UK) it is normal to spend upwards of £1,500 a year on (overcrowded) public transport, as well as another big number on running a car. Yes, cars in NZ are overpriced pieces of carp, but your piece of carp won't depreciate as fast in NZ so you're not much worse off on that score.

Woodlea

Buy a section and build a house on it and when you sell it pocket the profit - in the UK you would have to pay 40% on it.
What about stamp duty when you buy a house, how much is that these days?
And when you croak you can leave it all to your kids without the poor buggers paying inheritence tax on what you've already paid tax on - robbery!

Bo-Jangles

You think it more logical to compare Auckland to London? They're nothing alike and Auckland doesn't have anything like the real estate of your Chelseas, Knightsbridges and Belgravias which distorts the average cost of living hugely.

Still, I am talking about my life in NZ versus the UK and you'll never convince me that I am better off living in Auckland versus London, but what do I know, I just live here.

DC10

Just gazing out the window across Kensington and Hyde Park now

I'm just saying that cost of living in Auckland is roughly 30% lower and (before tax) salaries likewise. As you say, it will vary greatly depending on personal circumstances

Bo-Jangles

Indeed it is a land of two halves, as I always say you can't compare the whole country as if it were all living in one big village.

chocolate cake

It's not totally illogical to compare large UK provincial centres with NZ's dominant city. Auckland dominates NZ in way that London (despite being influenicial) does not in the UK. Outside Auckland and a few other major cities there aren't a great deal of other opportunities. I've worked in London but more often nit, and if I went back to the UK, it would be last place I'd want to move to.

£ to $, NZ is way more expensive at the current exchange rates, NZ'ers have benefited very little at all from the NZ$ dollar's appreciation. Prices of practically all goods are more expensive, DIY materials horrendously so. TV, white goods, cycles, bicycles, and not least food.

Petrol's less because it's taxed less, but that just increases the ever growing dependency on it. I'm no supporter of taxing for global warming considerations, but oil isn't going to last for ever.

There's one big reason car insurance is less, and that's because it doesn't need cover anything like the same as the UK, with the ACC. But if you were unfortunate to have an accident, the ACC does you no favours losing your right to sue.

The Health Service here isn't free at the point of entry like the UK either.

Housing/renting is dearer than UK, ok maybe not London, but not everyone's bringing across London sale house proceeds prior to the dip.

As to being able to buy and sell investment property or second homes with no tax on the profit, I don't see how that benefits the country. The pitiful arguements against GST at the moment are ridiculous, even though it's given it won't raise much initially if it was introduced at the low % rate proposed by the opposition with it applying on gains after it is introduced.

DC10

I do think it's important not to confuse NZ's *"high"* prices with Sterling's collapse. Don't blame NZ for Gordon Brown.

If Sterling-NZD were near its medium-term average then things wouldn't seem so expensive in NZ.

As for no right to sue - well I could write a book. One thing I will definitely not miss about the UK is the legions of "Have you had an accident that wasn't your fault?" scroungers and ambulance chasing solicitor parasites. Guess what - if you trip over it almost certainly WAS your fault.

Lastly, (I promise!) I firmly believe that it is reasonable for users to contribute to health costs at point of use. Nobody seriously believes that other basic needs such as housing, food, heating should be free at point of use - why is health so special? The NHS cult encourages the whole "sick note" culture of inefficiency here and sends people rushing to the doctor/hospital and taking sick days at the drop of a hat.

Browner_

Just watching Gryff Rhys-Jones on the Living Channel about Sydney.
My god it looks compared to here.

I know youd get a different impression if you watched 'gangs of oz', but none the less the place has people and places that are part of the decent real world.

He does says its expensive though, certainly housing.