What's your total annual income - anonymous poll

[wemakeyousoundb]

I haven’t done it but my brothers m-i-l is at present. This is the info I passed to her, she’s retired ill health from teaching so I think is short a few years.

Normally, if you have a gov gateway login, you can see your history on line and the cost to purchase any partial or missing years. You can only fill years after the event, and the rate is set each year. Current cost is £824 per year.

But if you claim to be self employed, it only costs approx £160. Now to pay, you have to talk to DWP to get a quote & a reference number, then pay the contributions via HMRC. This will take a bit of time probably to set up and does have some admin.

It is definitely more efficient ie cheaper to buy extra years by declaring yourself self-employed (ie - registering this status with HMRC) although you can only do one tax year at a time.

You don't need to do any actual self employed work, just complete a self-assessment tax return each year and state despite having profits below the small profits threshold you'd like to voluntarily pay Class 2 NI contributions.

Each year you do this adds another year record at a fifth of the cost of adding missing years in a lump sum payment.

Wonder if there’s time to do all of this by January 31st?

bungled my alcohol addled brains but could solve my state pension conundrum I have been looking at for years, bookmarked for daytime reading.

Also my earnings figure stated earlier in the thread was gross not net so probably only on the first rung of 5 figures earners netwise.

 

[mango5]

I bet you've paid a whole lot of VAT

Indeed

I assume they meant income tax. Hope they’re able to pay their stamp.

Indeed

I haven’t done it but my brothers m-i-l is at present. This is the info I passed to her, she’s retired ill health from teaching so I think is short a few years.

Normally, if you have a gov gateway login, you can see your history on line and the cost to purchase any partial or missing years. You can only fill years after the event, and the rate is set each year. Current cost is £824 per year.

But if you claim to be self employed, it only costs approx £160. Now to pay, you have to talk to DWP to get a quote & a reference number, then pay the contributions via HMRC. This will take a bit of time probably to set up and does have some admin.

It is definitely more efficient ie cheaper to buy extra years by declaring yourself self-employed (ie - registering this status with HMRC) although you can only do one tax year at a time.

You don't need to do any actual self employed work, just complete a self-assessment tax return each year and state despite having profits below the small profits threshold you'd like to voluntarily pay Class 2 NI contributions.

Each year you do this adds another year record at a fifth of the cost of adding missing years in a lump sum payment.

Wonder if there’s time to do all of this by January 31st?

Thanks for this. My personal tax/NI situation and related 'full stamp' headache may be somewhat relieved.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Out of curiosity, I've checked to see what my state pension position is.

On the current rules, I've now got enough NI contributions for a full state pension (although the buggers might change the rules again) - as only one incomplete year after I got made redundant and didn't sign on as I couldn't face jumping through all the hoops and being forced in to something crap, so made the redundancy pay and a few bits of part time work do.



although it says i've got full credit for 1985-86.

i left school at easter 1986 and signed on the dole (which you could at 16 then)



and i'm still 14 and a bit years off getting the pension (again assuming the buggers don't change the rules again)

 

[Elpenor]

Indeed

Indeed

Thanks for this. My personal tax/NI situation and related 'full stamp' headache may be somewhat relieved.

Not a problem, it’s not well publicised and I hope you can take advantage of this

 

[krink]

Out of curiosity, I've checked to see what my state pension position is.

On the current rules, I've now got enough NI contributions for a full state pension (although the buggers might change the rules again) - as only one incomplete year after I got made redundant and didn't sign on as I couldn't face jumping through all the hoops and being forced in to something crap, so made the redundancy pay and a few bits of part time work do.



although it says i've got full credit for 1985-86.

i left school at easter 1986 and signed on the dole (which you could at 16 then)



and i'm still 14 and a bit years off getting the pension (again assuming the buggers don't change the rules again)

How did you do that, PT? I checked when I can retire but didn't know you could check all that info too. Cheers.

 

[andysays]

After another below inflation pay rise this year, my salary has finally reached the dizzy heights of £30k

 

[hegley]

Out of curiosity, I've checked to see what my state pension position is.

On the current rules, I've now got enough NI contributions for a full state pension (although the buggers might change the rules again) - as only one incomplete year after I got made redundant and didn't sign on as I couldn't face jumping through all the hoops and being forced in to something crap, so made the redundancy pay and a few bits of part time work do.



although it says i've got full credit for 1985-86.

i left school at easter 1986 and signed on the dole (which you could at 16 then)



and i'm still 14 and a bit years off getting the pension (again assuming the buggers don't change the rules again)

Bit of an explanation here: Why did I get a state pension credit in school, but none while in uni?

 

[scifisam]

Out of curiosity, I've checked to see what my state pension position is.

On the current rules, I've now got enough NI contributions for a full state pension (although the buggers might change the rules again) - as only one incomplete year after I got made redundant and didn't sign on as I couldn't face jumping through all the hoops and being forced in to something crap, so made the redundancy pay and a few bits of part time work do.



although it says i've got full credit for 1985-86.

i left school at easter 1986 and signed on the dole (which you could at 16 then)



and i'm still 14 and a bit years off getting the pension (again assuming the buggers don't change the rules again)

The dole counts towards NI credits. And before that child benefit counts (child benefit counts for the parent and the kid if they're over 16 but under 19 if in full time education).

I checked mine yesterday and bizarrely it's changed from last time. Last time all was fine. Now there are eight years of not enough contributions. four of them are too long ago to do anything about now - they're from when my daughter was a baby and toddler, and I was on income and getting child benefit for my daughter, so I was definitely covered, but it's suddenly been changed to nothing all year.

There are also four other years they're "checking," all too late for me to do anything about. But I was self-employed those years and paid voluntary NI contributions, which were even acknowledged when I went onto ESA, because I'd paid enough NI for income-based ESA, so I definitely didn't mess up and not pay them. No idea WTF is going on and there's zero I can do about it because it's too long ago.

There's still enough time left for me to get the 35 years for a full state pension (used to be 30 years, and now it's 35) so in some ways it's not that big a deal, unless they decide to take more years off me with no explanation as to why.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

The dole counts towards NI credits. And before that child benefit counts (child benefit counts for the parent and the kid if they're over 16 but under 19 if in full time education).

Thanks - I knew that bit, but was puzzled by getting credits for when I was 15 / 16

Bit of an explanation here: Why did I get a state pension credit in school, but none while in uni?

Thanks - I didn't knot that bit. Seems slightly weird getting NI credits for a whole financial year when I was still at school, but I'm not going to argue. I just wondered if it was an error on their part.

How did you do that, PT? I checked when I can retire but didn't know you could check all that info too. Cheers.

it's here

You will need a 'Government Gateway' account - the page has a link for this, I can't remember just what you have to do to set this up, it was a while ago that I set mine up.

 

[MickiQ]

I've checked my state pension If I stick to next April before I retire then I will get £180.43 pw when I reach 66 next Nov. The most I can increase it to by paying extra contributions is £185.15 so hardly worth it.
I was in a contracted out private scheme for 25 years which means I haven't got maximum stamp under the current rules but the pension from that is going to be one hell of a lot more than a fiver a week so worth it.
I've payed NI since I was 17 years old and whilst I have been made redundant 3 times I have only been out of work for about 6 months in total.

 

[Glitter]

scifisam home responsibilities protection (from child benefit) is only until aged 12. It changed quite a while ago.

 

[scifisam]

scifisam home responsibilities protection (from child benefit) is only until aged 12. It changed quite a while ago.

This was the years 1998-2002. So she was both under 12 and it was before the law changed. And I was on income support, so that would count anyway.

 

[Duncan2]

After another below inflation pay rise this year, my salary has finally reached the dizzy heights of £30k

.

 

[Boudicca]

I haven’t done it but my brothers m-i-l is at present. This is the info I passed to her, she’s retired ill health from teaching so I think is short a few years.

Normally, if you have a gov gateway login, you can see your history on line and the cost to purchase any partial or missing years. You can only fill years after the event, and the rate is set each year. Current cost is £824 per year.

But if you claim to be self employed, it only costs approx £160. Now to pay, you have to talk to DWP to get a quote & a reference number, then pay the contributions via HMRC. This will take a bit of time probably to set up and does have some admin.

It is definitely more efficient ie cheaper to buy extra years by declaring yourself self-employed (ie - registering this status with HMRC) although you can only do one tax year at a time.

You don't need to do any actual self employed work, just complete a self-assessment tax return each year and state despite having profits below the small profits threshold you'd like to voluntarily pay Class 2 NI contributions.

Each year you do this adds another year record at a fifth of the cost of adding missing years in a lump sum payment.

Wonder if there’s time to do all of this by January 31st?

I am registered self-employed and have just done this as I am a few years short, due to being contracted out for a few years in my youth. £150 for an extra four pounds a week is a no brainer.

Not sure about the one tax year at a time bit Elpenor, I've just paid for two full years Class 2 and a top up on a year that was just a little bit short.

 

[wemakeyousoundb]

I am registered self-employed and have just done this as I am a few years short, due to being contracted out for a few years in my youth. £150 for an extra four pounds a week is a no brainer.

Not sure about the one tax year at a time bit Elpenor, I've just paid for two full years Class 2 and a top up on a year that was just a little bit short.

every time I look on that website it tells me there are a number of years "under investigation" guess Ishould call them one day.
Also, having looked over my accounts I realised I was optimistic and will actually earn 18K+ before tax and NI this year and not the 20K + I thought I was, I suppose it could still change if I turned into hard worker...

 

[ska invita]

interesting





more graphs here

 

[brogdale]

interesting

View attachment 358831

Do you know what the source is?

 

[pseudonarcissus]

every time I look on that website it tells me there are a number of years "under investigation" guess Ishould call them one day.
Also, having looked over my accounts I realised I was optimistic and will actually earn 18K+ before tax and NI this year and not the 20K + I thought I was, I suppose it could still change if I turned into hard worker...

I had the “under investigation” thing and called. It seemed single direct debit payments were missed, which must have been their fault…but I didn’t have the energy to request ancient bank statements to challenge it. Fortunately it was only 3 years in recent, recoverable, history, so my additional payments will be payback for 3 months on the file in 2017

 

[pseudonarcissus]

interesting

View attachment 358831



more graphs here

I suspect it’s reversed for the top 10 percentile

 

[2hats]

Do you know what the source is?

The Economist, 15 December, 2022.

Britain’s economic record since 2007 ranks near the bottom among peer countries

Many Western countries have had a rough time of it. But Britain has some specific maladies

www.economist.com

 

[ska invita]

The Economist, 15 December, 2022.​

Britain’s economic record since 2007 ranks near the bottom among peer countries

Many Western countries have had a rough time of it. But Britain has some specific maladies

www.economist.com

also check this

Welcome to nginx!

 

[Sasaferrato]

I know loads of people working in IT on £100K+, You won't get that sort of money working as a Linux sysadmin or coding Powershell or Python but specialist skills such as CICS, TPS or niche programming languages there is more work than experienced people out there. Freelancers do best of course but still plenty of permanent staff on those sort of rates. Back in the 1990's in a previous incarnation as an MVS/JES3 engineer I wrote a fair bit of 370/Assembler (if you know what these acronyms mean you are outing yourself as either another old crumbly like me or a serious geek) not touched it since then which is a great pity because a few years ago someone asked if I was up for a 3 month contract rewriting Assembler into C for Aix and I had to turn them down. Which was a great pity really because they were willing to go to £5K a day.

Back when I worked for Evil American Megacorp I sat in on a few interviews as the 'technical' interviewer. Not one candidate I thought was best got offered the job so I'm probably the kiss of death for anyone looking for a job.

I have a neighbour that builds databases. He is on over £100k.

 

[Dogsauce]

I generally haven’t a clue what my actual salary is, just how much comes in monthly after tax & MOT.

I did get a pay rise recently that I wasn’t expecting, backdated to April. This was quoted as a lump sum increase for all staff in my category (on various salaries) but would be pro-rata as I don’t do a full week. Though I don’t know what a full week is in hours either so can’t do the maths to figure it out.

 

[sim667]

I have a neighbour that builds databases. He is on over £100k.

I used to do that on 21.7k

 

[Puddy_Tat]

I generally haven’t a clue what my actual salary is, just how much comes in monthly after tax & MOT.

could always multiply the top line on your pay slip (as in pay before tax) by 12 (assuming you're paid monthly) or however many times a year you get paid.

I did get a pay rise recently that I wasn’t expecting, backdated to April. This was quoted as a lump sum increase for all staff in my category (on various salaries) but would be pro-rata as I don’t do a full week. Though I don’t know what a full week is in hours either so can’t do the maths to figure it out.

local authority by any chance? (i got a chunk of pay award in the december pay) - full time could be 37 hours, or have a feeling it's a bit less if you're inner london or something.

again, your pay-slip might tell you - it may have a fraction like 0.5 (half the standard week) - or look at some job adverts for your organisation and see what it says?

 

[spring-peeper]

I wanted to change my vote, Our income has doubled since then.

We had a lot of money tied in a retirement saving plan, and Hubby is at the age that he must start pulling it out.
Also, my government pension and old age security have kicked in.

Would have loved this higher income when the kids were younger, but they insist that it was a good thing to be told "No, we can not afford it".

A large portion of our working salary went it retirement savings.
Although I hated putting money aside for the future, turns out that was a good thing.

 

[Dogsauce]

, your pay-slip might tell you - it may have a fraction like 0.5 (half the standard week) - or look at some job adverts for your organisation and see what it says?

My pay slips are online so I never look at them, can’t remember how to view them, but I’m curious enough now to go and dig out the email telling me where they are! I work in a school (stand alone academy) and pay is set by the governors here, though I’m on some sort of local authority grade so not totally sure how that works.

 

[kabbes]

All these boundaries are now worth about 5% less than they were at the time of the polling

 

[brogdale]

All these boundaries are now worth about 5% less than they were at the time of the polling

and now, for me, even lower as rat-boy's fiscal drag stealth tax has resulted in my modest income being subject to income tax.

 

[Dom Traynor]

All these boundaries are now worth about 5% less than they were at the time of the polling

I've had an 11% pay rise since then so... Union negotiated I should add.