How far would you go to avoid your personal tax raid? This is Money Podcast
Tax is an increasingly taxing subject for many people who feel hard done by as Britain's complicated system catches them out.
From quirks of the system, such as the 60 per cent tax trap and child benefit removal, to the childcare cliff edge, frozen thresholds, and pensions soon to be dragged into inheritance tax, there's a whole host of things to drive us mad.
And, it's getting worse. The Tories and now Labour have both chosen to ratchet up the things that trip people up to raise money, rather than sort out a tax system that most economists say is a total mess.
So how far would you go to avoid your personal tax raid? And is tax changing people's behaviour? Lee highlights how.
On this podcast, Georgie Frost, Lee Boyce and Simon Lambert dive into how the British tax tail is wagging the dog.
Plus, as the Switch 2 arrives and the video game industry goes from strength to strength, should you invest in video game firms?
How much do you need for a comfortable retirement – and what does that get you?
And finally, you put up an 8 foot fence for privacy, your neighbour has gone from non-plussed to threatening to call the council over a planning breach, what do you do?
The team have some answers.
And for all the listeners that Simon directed to the gem that is the comments section of the story, here's the link.
Listen to the This is Money podcast
We publish the podcast every Friday on This is Money and at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and more. Search for it at your favourite podcast platform.
To download Apple Podcasts go to the App store. On Android devices, go to the Google Play store to download the podcast app of your choice.
You can press play to listen to this week's full episode on the player above, and wherever you get your podcasts please subscribe and review us if you like the podcast.
You can also listen to the latest episode, find the archive and join in the debate in reader comments on the This is Money podcast page.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Sun
37 minutes ago
- The Sun
Lidl's sell-out pizza oven is back in shops this week – it's a dupe for a much more expensive one
LIDL is bringing back its sell-out pizza oven in shops this coming week. The Grillmeister Gas Pizza Oven costs just £79.99 and it's back in stores next Thursday. The gadget is a whopping £170 cheaper than the Ninja version and it's sure to be popular with shoppers once again. You can use the oven to cook your own crispy pizzas or fresh baguettes, and you can eat them straight from the oven. That makes the gadget perfect for garden parties and entertaining. It has a removable pizza stone and a door with latch and viewing window so you can keep an eye on your pizzas while they're cooking. The oven can reach 400C in just 15 minutes. If you're wanting to save space it comes with foldable feet. The oven includes a gas bottle connection hose and pressure reducing valve, and it's suitable for 5 and 11kg gas bottles. It also comes with a three-year warranty. It looks to be a good dupe for the Ninja Artisan Electric Outdoor Pizza Oven & Air Fryer, which is currently £249.99 on the Ninja website. The Ninja version usually sells for an RRP of £299.99. Five Lidl rosés you need this summer, according to a wine expert - a £6.99 buy is as light & crispy as £22 Whispering Angel You should bear in mind that the Lidl version doesn't have an air fryer function, but if you're fine with this then you can make a huge saving. Lidl recently sold another pizza oven for the even cheaper price of £29.99. The Grillmeister Barbecue Pizza Oven can be used on charcoal or gas barbecues. How much are other pizza ovens selling for? It's always worth shopping around and comparing products to make sure you're getting the best deal. Another more affordable option is the Gas Tabletop Pizza Oven with Cover which is currently on clearance at Argos for £54. The portable black steel pizza oven also uses gas and runs on propane. Argos says the oven is "light enough to take on trips" and "fits neatly on a table". If you're looking to splash out more there's the Ooni Koda 12 Gas Fuel Portable Outdoor Pizza Oven. It's currently on offer at John Lewis but it still costs £239.20. Its description says it can cook Neapolitan-style pizzas "in 60 seconds flat". "No assembly, no mess, no fuss, just quick and simple cooking for friends and family gatherings," it says. How to save money on pizza TAKEAWAY pizzas taste great but they can hit you hard on your wallet. Here are some tips on how to save on pizza: Cashback websites - TopCashback and Quidco will pay you to order your pizza through them. They're paid by retailers for every click that comes to their website from the cashback site, which eventually trickles down to you. So you'll get cashback on orders placed through them. Discount codes - Check sites like VoucherCodes for any discount codes you can use to get money off your order. Make you own topping - One savvy customer noticed that Domino's charges up to 70p MORE for pizzas on its menu compared to ordering the same one through the "create your own" option. It's worth trying out to see if it makes a difference before you place your next order. Buy it from the shops - It might not taste exactly the same but you'll save the most money by picking up your favourite pizza from your local supermarket. Some Asda stores sell freshly made ones from the pizza counter where prices start at £2.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Government stalling in efforts to cut foreign aid spent on asylum seekers
The government is struggling to cut the amount of money from the foreign aid budget it spends on asylum seekers in the UK, new figures show. Home Office figures show the department expects to spend £2.2bn of overseas development assistance (ODA) this financial year, of which £2.1bn is expected to be spent on asylum support. The predictions for this year are only slightly less than the £2.4bn spent in 2024/25. Official development assistance (ODA) – which was slashed earlier this year to 0.3 per cent of GDP to pay for a boost to defence spending - is used to promote the economic development and welfare in developing countries around the world. A portion of this money is handed to the home office to support asylum seekers after they arrive in the UK, most of which goes towards their accommodation. But the government's failure to cut back on this spending has led aid organisations to accuse ministers of 'robbing Peter to pay Paul', claiming they are in danger of a 'reckless repeat of decisions taken by the previous Conservative government.' Figures published in March revealed that the number of asylum seekers housed in costly hotels has increased by more than 8,000 since the general election, with 38,079 migrants being housed in hotels at the end of December. It comes despite Sir Keir Starmer previously saying a Labour government wouldn't use the foreign aid budget to pay for asylum seekers' hotel costs – but admitted that the government would not be able to stop doing so immediately. 'I'm not going to pretend to you we can do that in the first 24 hours', he said in May 2024. Meanwhile, Labour's election manifesto vowed to 'end asylum hotels, saving the taxpayer billions of pounds'. Gideon Rabinowitz, director of policy at the Bond network of development organisations, warned that 'cutting the UK aid budget while using it to prop up Home Office costs is a reckless repeat of decisions taken by the previous Conservative government.' "Diverting £2.2bn of UK aid to cover asylum accommodation in the UK is unsustainable, poor value for money, and comes at the expense of vital development and humanitarian programmes tackling the root causes of poverty, conflict and displacement. "It is essential that we support refugees and asylum seekers in the UK, but the government should not be robbing Peter to pay Paul', he told the BBC. Meanwhile, Sarah Champion, chair of the International Development Committee, said: "Aid is meant to help the poorest and most vulnerable across the world: to alleviate poverty, improve life chances and reduce the risk of conflict. "Allowing the Home Office to spend it in the UK makes this task even harder." "The government must get a grip on spending aid in the UK. The Spending Review needs to finally draw a line under this perverse use of taxpayer money designed to keep everyone safe and prosperous in their own homes, not funding inappropriate, expensive accommodation here." The Home Office told the BBC it is committed to ending asylum hotels and is speeding up asylum decisions to save taxpayers' money. The department also said it had reduced overall asylum support costs by half a billion pounds in the last financial year, saving £200m in ODA which had been passed back to the Treasury. In April, The Independent revealed that the government had awarded a contract which allows for hotels and barges to house asylum seekers up until September 2027, despite Labour vowing to end the practice. The contract, advertised ahead of the election, was awarded by the Cabinet Office in October 2024 – just months after Labour won a historic landslide election victory - and runs up until September 2027. In June, the home secretary admitted she was "concerned about the level of money" being spent on asylum seekers' accommodation, adding: "We need to end asylum hotels altogether."
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
NHS to get £30bn boost over three years at expense of other services
The NHS is set to receive a £30bn funding boost in the spending review next week, at the expense of other public services. The Department of Health is expected to emerge as the biggest winner on Wednesday with a 2.8% increase to its day-to-day spending budget over a three-year period, amounting to a £30bn rise by 2028. This amounts to a £17bn real-terms increase according to the Times, which first reported the figure. The cash injection will come at the expense of other public services such as policing and local councils, which are facing real-terms cuts in the spending review. Ministers are planning to put the increase in health spending, as well as plans for over £100bn in capital investment, at the centre of their pitch to the public this week. Keir Starmer has pledged that by the next election, 92% of patients in England waiting for planned treatment will be seen within 18 weeks of being referred. NHS data suggests about 60% of people are currently seen within this time. NHS figures released last month showed the overall number of patients on waiting lists had risen slightly from 6.24 million to 6.25 million. Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, has acknowledged that she had been forced to rebuff requests for funding from some departments because of the tight economic situation. She has insisted the blame lies with Conservatives and has declined to reassess her self-imposed rules on borrowing and spending. Speaking in Manchester this week, the chancellor said despite a £190bn increase in funding over the spending review period 'not every department will get everything that they want next week and I have had to say no to things that I want to do too'. The Foreign Office and Department for Culture, Media and Sport are thought to be facing some of the deepest cuts. Economists have warned that the chancellor faces 'unavoidably' tough choices when she sets out the departmental spending plans. The Institute for Fiscal Studies thinktank has said defence and the NHS will dominate on 11 June. The Home Office has been lobbying heavily for more funding, with Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, warning that cuts threaten progress towards two of the prime minister's 'missions' — halving knife crime and halving violence against women and girls. Police chiefs including Mark Rowley, the head of the Metropolitan police service, warned Starmer directly in a letter this week that they would face 'stark choices' about which crimes they investigate if the Treasury pushes ahead with cuts. One of the areas in which the Home Office has sought to cut spending is on hotels to temporarily house asylum seekers in the UK. But according to figures published on Saturday, the department plans to spend about £2.2bn of foreign aid to support asylum seekers this financial year. This is only marginally less than the £2.3bn spent in 2024-2025. Asylum seekers and their families are housed in temporary accommodation if they are waiting for the outcome of a claim or an appeal and have been assessed as not being able to support themselves independently. International rules allow countries to count first-year costs of supporting refugees as overseas development assistance. A total of 32,345 asylum seekers were being housed temporarily in UK hotels at the end of March this year, down 15% from the end of December. The Home Office said it was 'urgently taking action to restore order and reduce costs', which would cut the amount spent to support asylum seekers and refugees in the UK.
