Things I wish I knew

[kinboshi]

Why do we need to put car tax in the windscreen still?   The tele is normally showing adverts telling us they know where to look if our car is untaxed and it can be scrapped if we don't do it, it's all on the computer yet we still need to show a bit of paper in the window for some reason. 

My car tax has gone up £70 since 2007.

Why do we still pay car tax at all?

Much fairer to add this tax to fuel.

yeah and then who would live in the sticks supplying you city folks with food. We already pay a much higher fuel cost and dont have the luxury of a pubic transport system that will get us to a location or at time we need scrap  fuel tax and use a chip paying per mile travel depending on the road your travelling so the people using the expensive new roads are paying for them while we mugs on dirt tracks can save a little

Someone who does 10 miles per week pays the same car tax as someone who does 10,000.

That doesn't seem very fair to me.

Doesn't it help towards monitoring cars on the road in terms of MOT and insurance?  Although, it does this far from perfectly.

[ExiledDub]

Why do we need to put car tax in the windscreen still?   The tele is normally showing adverts telling us they know where to look if our car is untaxed and it can be scrapped if we don't do it, it's all on the computer yet we still need to show a bit of paper in the window for some reason. 

My car tax has gone up £70 since 2007.

Why do we still pay car tax at all?

Much fairer to add this tax to fuel.

yeah and then who would live in the sticks supplying you city folks with food. We already pay a much higher fuel cost and dont have the luxury of a pubic transport system that will get us to a location or at time we need scrap  fuel tax and use a chip paying per mile travel depending on the road your travelling so the people using the expensive new roads are paying for them while we mugs on dirt tracks can save a little

Okay I bite...so in the vain of why do you country folks pay the same road tax to drive on poorer roads...why are the bands for property tax the same irrespective of where you live?...compare what £250K buys you in London compared to elsewhere in the UK and this has to be one of the most unfair taxes in the UK...why isn't this calculated on a combination of sq meterage of the property plus sq meterage of any adjoining gardens?

Also why do you pay zero tax on properties below £250K and then pay 3% on everything the minute that you go £1 over £249,999? Same applies to the additional tax bands, why is it not like income tax where you only pay on the incremental above each cut off point?

[Ironside]

Why do we need to put car tax in the windscreen still?   The tele is normally showing adverts telling us they know where to look if our car is untaxed and it can be scrapped if we don't do it, it's all on the computer yet we still need to show a bit of paper in the window for some reason. 

My car tax has gone up £70 since 2007.

Why do we still pay car tax at all?

Much fairer to add this tax to fuel.

yeah and then who would live in the sticks supplying you city folks with food. We already pay a much higher fuel cost and dont have the luxury of a pubic transport system that will get us to a location or at time we need scrap  fuel tax and use a chip paying per mile travel depending on the road your travelling so the people using the expensive new roads are paying for them while we mugs on dirt tracks can save a little

Okay I bite...so in the vain of why do you country folks pay the same road tax to drive on poorer roads...why are the bands for property tax the same irrespective of where you live?...compare what £250K buys you in London compared to elsewhere in the UK and this has to be one of the most unfair taxes in the UK...why isn't this calculated on a combination of sq meterage of the property plus sq meterage of any adjoining gardens?

Also why do you pay zero tax on properties below £250K and then pay 3% on everything the minute that you go £1 over £249,999? Same applies to the additional tax bands, why is it not like income tax where you only pay on the incremental above each cut off point?

council tax goes too your local council so living in the country we pay less council tax but thats because the council doesnt offer us the same service as we would get in a major city. we dont have as many streets too light or cover with cctv or sweep, we dont have the same acccess to libraries and leisure activities or the same public transport links schools are often 20+ miles so we dont get the chance too put names down for which school we would like and hope we get it, its one school or nothing. wages for workers employed by the councils are so much lower too techincally allthough people in london might pay more council tax there are still getting a bigger bang for there buck

[Graham C]

I think he may be talking about stamp duty

[Ironside]

I think he may be talking about stamp duty

oh never paid that as never had a house too sell

[ExiledDub]

I think he may be talking about stamp duty

Apologies, yes, I was referring to stamp duty and not council tax

[Graham C]

You still pay 1% from 125k to 250k and then it goes up again at over 500k.  Personally I think it's a complete rip off, it's expensive enough to move house without having to cough up extra in a tax just because you want to move.

To me it's like inheritance tax, I don't agree with it at all.

[ExiledDub]

I didn't mind paying it as I think that it is a necessary evil but I just think that it is completely unfair in its current guise. 

I thought that they had abolished the 1% rate but even still I believe that it should be applied on an incremental basis and that it should be reformed to account for property value imbalances. 

[The Camel]

24. Why when you buy a ticket for a concert, sports match or even a train journey is there a price and on top of that a "booking fee"? Is it some sort of tax dodge?

[david3103]

24. Why when you buy a ticket for a concert, sports match or even a train journey is there a price and on top of that a "booking fee"? Is it some sort of tax dodge?

book rail tickets via EastCoast Mainline and there's no fee, plus if you enrol for their Rewards scheme you get points to use on free journeys or free wifi etc

[The Camel]

24. Why when you buy a ticket for a concert, sports match or even a train journey is there a price and on top of that a "booking fee"? Is it some sort of tax dodge?

book rail tickets via EastCoast Mainline and there's no fee, plus if you enrol for their Rewards scheme you get points to use on free journeys or free wifi etc

Meh, I don't like enrolling for schemes and points savers.

Hate giving license to these companies to send me all the spam offers I'm not interested in.

Still doesn't explain the point of "booking fees"

[Graham C]

24. Why when you buy a ticket for a concert, sports match or even a train journey is there a price and on top of that a "booking fee"? Is it some sort of tax dodge?

Tell me about it, personally I think it's a rip off.  Ticket may well be £40 odd but by the time you've added the booking fee and the expensive postage costs it's often over £50. I'd rather they just charged that in the first place.   If you don't want postage you still have to pay a handling charge on top a lot of the time.

[david3103]

24. Why when you buy a ticket for a concert, sports match or even a train journey is there a price and on top of that a "booking fee"? Is it some sort of tax dodge?

book rail tickets via EastCoast Mainline and there's no fee, plus if you enrol for their Rewards scheme you get points to use on free journeys or free wifi etc

Meh, I don't like enrolling for schemes and points savers.

Hate giving license to these companies to send me all the spam offers I'm not interested in.

Still doesn't explain the point of "booking fees"

Easy to filter out the emails, and tbh the EastCoast ones have saved me a fortune on rail fares. Booked early to go to Edinburgh in August and wife and I got there and back for <£70 including coming home 1st Class. On top of which I got points that went towards a free return journey to London.

[The Camel]

24. Why when you buy a ticket for a concert, sports match or even a train journey is there a price and on top of that a "booking fee"? Is it some sort of tax dodge?

Tell me about it, personally I think it's a rip off.  Ticket may well be £40 odd but by the time you've added the booking fee and the expensive postage costs it's often over £50. I'd rather they just charged that in the first place.   If you don't want postage you still have to pay a handling charge on top a lot of the time.

Often still have to pay booking fee when you get self printed tickets.

Must be some sort of tax dodge.

[KarmaDope]

24. Why when you buy a ticket for a concert, sports match or even a train journey is there a price and on top of that a "booking fee"? Is it some sort of tax dodge?

Tell me about it, personally I think it's a rip off.  Ticket may well be £40 odd but by the time you've added the booking fee and the expensive postage costs it's often over £50. I'd rather they just charged that in the first place.   If you don't want postage you still have to pay a handling charge on top a lot of the time.

Often still have to pay booking fee when you get self printed tickets.

Must be some sort of tax dodge.

Not a tax dodge. Ish.

Basically there was a ruling that said people couldn't charge exorbitant fees for paying by card like they used to. The ticket sellers (greedy bastards would be a better term) didn't like this so they introduced a booking fee rather than a card fee. They claim that they don't get anything out of the cost of the ticket at all, so if a ticket costs £25 plus fees, the entire £25 goes to the promoter of the concert. I find this hard to believe.