I got my first proper paycheck today. I had to look at it many times and get a calculator out to confirm that the following is true.

About 26% of what I earn goes to the government.

There was me, thinking I got a tax free allowance, and then the usual 10% and then 22% bands, and assumed that tax might be around 15-20% overall. Indeed, it was. What I hadn’t bargained for was that about a third of my total tax payment is for NI. Which is, a bit silly.

It all seems to be a way of subtly screwing as much money out of the people as possible. I’m all in favour of people putting up income tax on higher bands, because if you’re earning that much, you can afford to pay that much. However, increasing an across-the-board tax is just stupid.

Oh well. I’ll go back to counting the pennies.