what's comes first? the job or the NIN?

thanks for all the responses, all. you are all lovely (yay and i mean it too!)
now to make notes from all this info and get the process rolling..

i wonder if we can apply for the child tax credit using a temp NIN number for me,
anyone know?


-trish

I don't think you can claim it til you get your ILR anyway.

Coffebean ... I was curious about this too. Through my friend Google, I found out it is 23%. 

Umm... *dumb question alert*

How much is the emergency tax?

not a dumb question, i was wondering too!!

Thank you!

To be honest, 23% isn't bad...

Nope, it is only 1% more than what you pay if you earn under £31 000.  But don't forget Nat. Insurance is paid on top of that.  Roughly 25% of your income goes in tax & NI if you are wanting to work out what your take home pay would be.

Here's the tax calculator http://www.listentotaxman.com/

I think emergency code is 474L and standard code is 461L.

i wonder if we can apply for the child tax credit using a temp NIN number for me,
anyone know?

You can't.  You have to have a NIN to get child tax credit but if you apply for it then you will get an appointment for the number and not have to wait until you have a job.  That is how I got my NIN.

Your husband has to apply for it but you still have to have a NIN.  Your husband and child are entitled to it as British citizens.

You can't.  You have to have a NIN to get child tax credit but if you apply for it then you will get an appointment for the number and not have to wait until you have a job.  That is how I got my NIN.

ooh thanks for that, kolc!

I don't understand why people often say or act as if taxes are much higher in the UK.  Here in the US, at my current salary, 30.7% of my salary goes to taxes.  If I made the same amount in the UK, 27.1% would go to tax & NI combined.  Am I missing something?  I guess if you just compare US Federal tax to UK national tax, the latter is higher.  Maybe people do that and overlook the fact that we also have to pay state, local, medicare, and social security taxes?

Liz, I'm with you.  I think someone pointed out that the tax is about the "same" in the UK and the US - except in the UK you have healthcare provisions covered by the taxes you pay, which you don't have in the US.

(OT:  Taxes are higher here because of VAT.  .We're taxed when we earn it and then again when we spend it.  Plus the high tax on petrol makes everything more expensive because whatever you buy was more expensive to bring to market.)

I got an appt for the NIN, and they insisted they need my British husband's passport.  We didn't have it when we applied for FLR, and they accepted his driver's license and proof of address.  We still don't have it.  The booklet we received said to come to the interview even if I don't have any documents.  Is the lack of his passport going to make problems? 

-shell

shell, if you dont mind me asking, how did you receive a booklet? did they send you it after you got a scheduled appointment or did you request it? i am having a TERRIBLE time getting thru to anyone at my nearest social security office to get an appointment and its driving me MAD..

i dont know about the passport...  if the passport is being renewed, maybe you could explain that?

(OT:  Taxes are higher here because of VAT.  .We're taxed when we earn it and then again when we spend it. 

Same goes for US state sales taxes, doesn't it?

Same goes for US state sales taxes, doesn't it?

That's what I was thinking...

I was "lucky" to live in a state that didn't have state tax or sales tax on food & stuff like that.  However, we paid for it by having a totally crap governor...prolly the crappiest one in the whole of the US...well, that is, after his brother was appointed as president.

C

Except that VAT is not a tax on consumption.  By definition, VAT (Value Added Tax) is a tax on the production process. 

As a complete sidenote, I'm really unclear as to why foreign people get to claim VAT back on items they take outside of the UK.  If the item was sold or involved in any transformative process in the UK, be economic definition, the tax should apply.  To have the tax be claimed back by visitors, seems to be more of a direct export subsidy than anything else. 

Sales Tax (a tax issued at time of sale rather than at various points during production) is a true consumption tax. 

So is the UK having VAT take on both functions?