Comparison of Income Tax - UK vs. US States

There has been much debate about the "high tax rate" in the UK vs. the US. I just thought it might be a more fruitful discussion when we have the real facts in front of us. Since I am up at the crack of dawn on a Saturday morning with no one to talk to (and not to mention that I am a numbers nerd), I actually have the time to do things like such!!

Do note that this is strictly an income tax comparison. Taxes (if you can call them that) such as Social Security & Medicare etc. for the US are not accounted for, National Insurance for the UK is not accounted for. Also note that other additional allowances (tax relief) for either US or UK are also not reflected. Comparison is strictly based on "Single" filing status. UK tax calculation has been converted to USD for an apples to apples comparison. Exchange rate from GBP to USD is reflected at the most recent rate of 1.62.

This has been quite fascinating for me. For example, who would have thought that the state of California has such wacky Tax bracket - how random. Makes me laugh. And, did you know that there are a total of 9 states with no income tax, although 2 of them do tax on income earned via interest and dividends (i.e. investments). I think the process has given me a new idea for my next career move - working for the US government - in a States at least, balancing the State's budget! I think that would be a very fascinating job really. If I can do it for a corporation, why not a State government? Hhhhhmmmm........


CONCLUSION:
While the UK income tax may be slightly higher vs. the US, depending on which US state you draw the comparison to, the comparison schedule is merely to point out that it's not devastatingly/dramatically

higher than we think.

Bearing in mind this is of absolutely no political agenda. I'm the last person to discuss politics with. But the analysis is done to put to rest the myth/mystery of the high UK taxes. While it is obviously high compared to several US states, particularly the ones with no state income tax, it is not higher than the New England states nor California.

And I cannot stress enough that the analysis solely compares Income Tax, which is the topic of misunderstanding in several discussions I've had in the past, present and hopefully not in the future. While many might think that I speak and defend the UK government and way of life, I DON'T. I am simply here to reveal facts.

Greece - Athens & Santorini (Opa!)

Call me spoiled but I insist on having a "babymoon" before the due date! It's something I have always wanted to do. True we are heading to Asia in a couple of months, but going home for a visit is never really a romantic holiday away with your spouse. I am sure y'all can agree. :-)

So anyway, we (or "I" rather) settled on Greece. We didn't intent to go for 10 days. It just happened by "accident" - more like Dylan's fault! We were in the middle of booking our flight and Dagan skyped in. Dylan insist on finishing the reservation while we were on skype, paying half an attention to what were doing. At the end of the skype call, we were stuck with a 10-night trip! It's a good thing I have many holidays to spare otherwise I would not be happy! You see, my initial research has led me to believe that Athens is not as packed with "sights", unlike Rome and Paris. I had wanted to spend 5 nights in Santorini....so 5 nights in Athens is just way too much. Anyhow, we made it work.

The trip started out disastrously, to say the least. We sat in front of a noise making toddler from Edinburgh to Amsterdam! We don't blame the child but rather the parents, for not stopping the child when he kicks the seat in front of him (my seat) continuously AND provoking the child to sing/say "e-i-e-i-o" in a loud screeching, high pitched voice every time the child stops!!! What in the world was the father thinking??? After an hour and a half of "e-i-e-i-o" and a vein and eye popping piercing pain in my eye socket and forehead due to a sinus infection and cabin pressure instability during landing combination, I was reading to eat the child for dinner!

Anyhow, we were just glad to be off the plane for transit in Amsterdam with "e-i-e-i-o" still ringing in my ears. The next leg of our journey on the flight was rather uneventful except for the same piercing pain and motion sickness during landing. Not to mention it was 2a.m. local time (midnight UK time) by the time we land. 10:30p.m. is usually my bedtime to give you some frame of reference! With all that going on, we (Dylan would say I) left our passports on the plane (seat pocket)! I didn't realised it until we left the airport and on the bus en route to our hotel. I seriously didn't think it was going to a big deal. Surely the cleaning crew will find it, send it to the lost and found, and we'll just pick it up the next day from the airport. No big deal. Wrong! In hindsight (which is 20-20), we should have gotten off the bus and went straight back to the airport had we known how inefficient and unhelpful KLM is in handling lost and found property.

Long story short, after visits to the various embassies, tons of international phone calls on our mobile phones, no thanks to KLM, we finally located our passports, not in Athens but in Amsterdam! We had to delay our flight to Santorini (another expense) so that we can have another working weekday in Athens. By Monday night, we finally arrived in Santorini - 4 days after our departure from Edinburgh!

That said, all was not lost in Athens. We managed to do some sight seeing in Athens. Sadly, like Milan, Athens is littered with graffiti, and box-like, distasteful brick built building. The "sites" were sporadic and spread very far apart with very little interesting buildings/things to do in between. Also, we didn't understand why there were so many stray random dogs and cats all over the streets??



Santorini....aaahhh....that's a whole different story! The island is breathtaking! It's definitely a must-visit if you can make it. It's hard to describe the beauty of the natural wonder of Santorini so I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.