What is it with Society ?

Question

My father worked all his days paying taxes ( like most peoples fathers ) When he passed away my mother was left a small part of his pension about £20 a month, now the inland revenue have been on to her saying she will have to pay tax on it.
I am not looking for sympathy here , i would just like to know how our society can treat pensioners like this.
I think we should look at the way other european countries ( like Germany ) treat their pensioners and we should follow suit.

Answer 1

I don't quite see what your gripe is. Would you prefer to pay higher taxes on your earnings so that everyone can receive their pension tax-free?

Example: someone aged 56 working at less than the average wage earns, say, £20,000. They would pay just under £3,000 tax.

Now compare this with someone of the same age who has retired early. He is able to do this because he has paid into a pension scheme. He also receives £20,000 a year but his is a pension. You think it is wrong that he should pay tax?

I do not see the justification for this view. As a general principle our tax system tries to match your tax liability with what you can afford. Granted there are a number ofareas where it fails to achieve this but I don't think that taxing pensions is one of them. Removing tax from pensions would mostly benefit the high earners who have been able to afford to siphon off large bonuses into their pension schemes.

I know nothing about the tax systems on the continent. Does Germany really favour pensions like this?

Please don't think I am getting on at you. This is very interesting subject and I am glad you asked the question. It is worthy of a better debate than you are likely to get on Yahoo Answers.

Answer 2

Yes i totally agree with you its disgusting the way our old people are treated immigrants are treated far better.

Answer 3

Yes, I'm afraid there is something very wrong going on there.