For those interested, Phil Moorhouse’ assessment of today’s budget statement
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A view from The Telegraph
Well, I expected them to ‘bribe’ pensioners and they did! Though still won’t vote for them.
I’ve three UK pensions, all of which are index linked, so am looking forward to UK inflation remaining approximately double that of France. However, I’m also very conscious that people still working in HE in the UK may only get a 2% salary increase whereas their former colleagues, now retired can look forward to 10.1%.
Glad I was able to bale out when I did - what was once a very intellectually and to a lesser extent financially rewarding career in the UK has become a latterday mill. My advice to any young researcher hoping for a career in academia would be to look anywhere other than UK universities.
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What they have done is stick to the manifesto promise of the Triple Lock. So I don’t think that the ‘bribe’ took place today, but that it took place when the Triple Lock policy was introduced into the manifesto in the first place.
Not a bribe (well, OK, maybe politically viewed as such). But a sorely needed remedial action which due to its slow pace is still very far indeed from the decency provided by the other advanced Western economies.
Oh how soon people forget that last year Coffey (remember her) suspended the triple lock so this time round, it doesn’t exactly recover the lost benefit…
Be assured though… this is not exactly for the pensioners who Hunt cares not about… it’s to keep the red wall onside and to prevent a rebellion from within the Tory ranks.
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The Tories will go down like the Titanic when it comes to a general election, people won’t forget all their lies, wastage and self-serving. I feel sorry for the youngsters trying to get on the property ladder, they now have even less of a chance and renting is dead money they can also ill-afford.
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The view from France
They will, they always have, well some more might remember but I hope you are right. Scrap hastily brought in laws to protect themselves to.
UK Spring Budget - 2024
Been doing my 2024 French Income Tax declaration for 2023 (London local authority pension) and discovered that my UK local authority net income for 2023 is lower than for 2022, despite my gross income for 2023 being considerably higher than for 2022.
My only other income is the UK state pension and with both pensions I can manage reasonably well, but wouldn’t call myself comfortably well off.
It looks like UK income tax was substantially increased in 2023 to my detriment, and others I presume?
I wonder if the upcoming UK 2024 Spring Budget will bring good news?
I can’t recall if any specific taxes were raised last time, but UK taxpayers are suffering mainly from “fiscal drag”, whereby tax thresholds have been frozen (especially the threshold at which the 20% band kicks in) which is bringing more people who used not to pay tax into the net - and after April will catch even recipients of the state pension, if they have any sort of private pension income.
Hunt the Shunt has very little room for manoeuvre in terms of the traditional Tory pre-election “giveaway” aka bribe to the electorate - but no doubt will try something which will give Labour a headache as they will most likely need to reveres whatever he does after the election in order to avoid yet more Government debt.
Add this to the clear effects of Brexit on the UK economy plus the inevitable rise in the cost of imported food when standards checks on the UK side are finally implemented this year, and nobody in the UK is going to be better off in 2024.
I’ve rechecked my maths and found a discrepancy in my favour, but despite that, my increased UK gross income for 2023 has been eaten away by increased 2023 UK income tax. I break even - no net increase.
Have to be grateful for small mercies I suppose.
Are you not able to reclaim tax paid to the UK Bonzocat, as you are a longstanding French resident taxed here and not UK resident?
Even if your local govt pension must initially be taxed in the UK because of international rules, I am not seeing why you can’t reclaim overpaid tax from the UK.
remember PS pensions went up 10.1% last April. Perhaps you’re conflating your net LA income with your gross overall income. Your tax code for your LA income should be 1257L. Has it changed?
Is this recent (last few years) - that would trigger a change to your LA tax code. If so, you’ll need to submit a DTT form with the state pension box ticked.
The UK personal tax free allowance has not increased so your 10.1% pension uplift (extra money) may be being taxed at 20% - i.e. 20% of 10% = 2%, tax increase - and only on the amount above 12700.
If tax increase is substantial, you might have a really, really big LA pension 
Thanks for replying, @larkswood12
Mathematics was one of my favourite subjects at school, but I find it doesn’t help me to understand income & tax matters.
Gross monthly income for 2022 = £1,468. Tax deducted monthly = £84.00.
Gross monthly income for 2023 = £1,505. Tax deducted monthly = £249.00.
The gross income for 2023 increased by £37 monthly (2.5% increase) but the income tax increased to £249.00 monthly (33%?). Seems disproportionate to me.
My only other income is the UK state pension which I’ve been receiving for 17 years now.
The LA did not reply to my subsequent enquiry about the income tax increase.
Where would I find that please?
Added later - The tax code was 1257L in 2021, then 312L for the last 9 months of 2022, then 106L for the last 9 months of 2023. Why it changes I do not know.
It looks like you’re on a significantly reduced tax allowance than the standard £12,570 and you’re paying tax on everything above around £1060. Are you repaying unpaid tax from earlier years? it would be worth contacting HMRC if you don’t know why you’re on that reduced allowance.
Thanks so much. I’ve gone through my payslips for 2021, 2022 and 2023 and I see that my tax code for 2021 was 1257L.
However, it changed to 350L on Feb 2022, then to 312L on May 2022, then to 106L on April 2023.
It can’t be due to the standard UK state pension income (can it?) because I’ve been receiving that for the last 17 years. It’s only since 2022 that I’ve noticed the tax increase and through you and @larkswood12 that my tax code appears to be up the shoot.
Will get in touch with HMRC and hope to sort this out. Thankyou.
Aha! I may have an answer for you @Bonzocat
As you know, the LA income is taxable by the UK and the state pension taxable by France under the double tax treaty (DTT).
The UK has till 2022 taxed your LA income accordingly, correctly ignoring your state pension which is taxable by France.
for 2021-22 (which I presume is your 2022) their calculation is accurate - on 17616 of income (12x monthly) we have
(17616 - 12570 [the tax code] ) x 0.2 [the tax rate] = 84.10 per month.
Similarly for 2022-23
(18060 - 1060 ) x 0.2 = 283.33 per month, so a bit out.
Clearly HMRC have started to include other income in the code which we presume is your state pension. The ‘other income’ is 11510 (12570 - 1060) as @JohnH correctly identified - does that sound near your state pension (presumably basic + additional?). They may be adding in ‘uncollected’ tax from the previous year as John suggested.
You should have received a ‘tax code notice’ which sets out the calculation of the code and deductions.
Here’s a couple of scenarios -
-
You never lodged a DTT form with HMRC to exempt your state pension from UK tax and they’ve just got around to taxing your state pension (unlikely) or
-
You lodged the DTT form and all was working until HMRC introduced ‘simple assessment’ around 21-22. They started with new recipients of the state pension. However, the two systems, double tax treaty exempt income and simple assessment don’t always link up, so the tax exempt flag on your state pension may have been overwritten / removed. Could trick the system into thinking your pension has just started?
However, if so, again you should have received a ‘simple assessment’ notice - these went out in October.
The reason I know all this is because that’s just what happened to Madame, who got her state pension in 2022. The pension tax codes all got changed and a 2.5K tax bill received. We called HMRC (January), immediately explained to the call handler the tax exempt status of the pensions under double taxation and that we needed to speak to the DTT ‘technical officer’ to get sorted out, which we got put through to fairly straight away. He even called us back. He saw all the lodged DTT forms and found the one for the state pension, sent and received around May 2023 and of course not yet processed.
It would be interesting to know whether your issue arose from simple assessment as there may be many other DTT exempt people who may get caught up in this new system.
In the meantime, I am curious to know if you have received from HMRC
a) tax code notices; and
b) a simple assessment notice.
Thanks!
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I don’t think I’ve received any info, but will dive into my intray to see if I have, but don’t recall anything.
How can I get in touch with HMRC? A phone call has a 30-minute wait time and I cannot set up an HMRC tax account because HMRC asks for UK passport info and UK driving license info for identity verification, and I have not had a UK driving license for 30 years. And webchat was useless!