Straight after putting up the tax graphs for 2009-2010, I’m putting up the tax graphs for this tax year. This time the graphs are better, and some of them include a comparison line with the previous year’s figures.

As before I’ll state I’m not an accountant or tax expert so I can’t guarantee their accuracy, but I’ve done my best. The graphs assume that you are getting the default allowances. Let’s start with an overview of how much tax you’ll pay.

The big change for this year is the new higher 50% rate of tax, and the tapering off of your personal allowance once you reach the income limit. For most people this has no impact, it is only once you start getting over £100,000 that your tax will rise. You can clearly see the change in tax by comparing the red and blue lines in the graph.

Next is a more visual way of seeing the tax changes. The first slope is where the personal allowance tapers off, and the next one is where the 50% tax band kicks in.

Income tax and national insurance

The overall tax you’ll pay is composed of income tax and national insurance. Here are two graphs showing how much of each one you’ll be paying.

Gross salary vs net salary

Here is a graph showing your gross salary vs your net salary.

And a more zoomed in version which only goes up to £60,000.

Percentage of tax

And finally I have a graph showing the percentage of tax you pay against your gross salary. You can see that the new tax changes have made the shape more uneven (i.e. more complicated) than in the previous tax year. This is sure to be good news for accountants!

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Here are some graphs showing income tax, national insurance, total tax and percentage of tax for the 2009-2010 tax year. I have also included a graph showing how total taxation has changed from the 2008-2009 tax year. If you want tax graphs for the current tax year go to my 2010-2011 tax graphs page.

I’ve done my best to make these accurate; however I’m not a tax expert so I can’t guarantee these are correct. These are therefore just for interest, and not for serious use.

2009-2010 income tax

First up income tax – everyone’s favourite tax!

After a short tax free allowance you can see how the basic rate of tax hits, and then the higher rate of tax causes the angle to increase.

2009-2010 national insurance

National insurance follows a different shape as once you reach the higher band the rate drops to 1% rather than increasing.

2009-2010 total tax

This graph combines both the income tax, and national insurance to show the total amount of these taxes that you would be paying.

And here is a version that is more zoomed in – it only goes up to £60,000.

2009-2010 percentage of tax

Perhaps more interesting than the amount of tax you pay, is the percentage of tax you pay. This graph shows the combined income, and national insurances taxes against gross salary. The dip somewhere after the £40,000 level is due to the national insurance dropping to the 1% rate before the higher rate of income tax kicks in.

Change in tax from 2008/09 to 2009/10

This final graph shows how the amount of tax you pay has changed from the previous tax year, to the 2009/10 tax year. You can see that the amount of tax to be paid has actually decreased. This is due to the increase in personal allowance for 2009-2010.

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If you’ve ever wondered what a million pounds (£1,000,000) looks like this post may help. Unfortunately I don’t have a million pounds, but I do have one single twenty pound note. Here it is:

I also have a ruler, a calculator, and a copy of Paint Shop Pro. I’m therefore going to create a million pounds out of £20 notes. To do this I need to know the dimensions of the £20 bank note. Each one is 149x80mm with a thickness of 0.113mm. A stack of 100 notes with a value of £2000 will therefore be just 11.3mm high. Or 1.13cm if you prefer.

Here is £2000 with some mystery legs to give you a sense of scale.

Of course your £2000 stack will only look like this if you use fresh new banknotes straight off the printing press. If you build the stack out of used banknotes it won’t look so neat because of all the crinkles and folds.

What does one hundred thousand pounds look like?

Next what might one hundred thousand pounds (£100,000) look like? A bit like this photo, 9 stacks, each with a bit over eleven thousand pounds in it. A nice block of money I’m sure you’ll agree.

What does one million pounds look like?

So what does a million pounds look like? I’ve built my million pounds out of 25 blocks of £40,000. Each of these blocks is 22.6cm high. So my million is about 45.2cm high with a single block of £40,000 at the front. One million is made of 50,000 £20 notes.

What if instead of being in a big block, all the notes were in a single pile? If that were done we’d have a stack of notes 5.65m high. To put that in perspective I put the stack next to a London double-decker bus. You can see that one million is a bit higher than a bus.

There are a few more all important questions to answer.

Would one million pounds fit in a brief case?

If we imagine a film or crime drama where the villain brings a brief case full of bank notes to a meeting how much would fit in there? If it is filled with £20 notes then we could fit about £100,000 in a brief case.

If we are dealing with £50 notes then we could fit about £250,000 in a slightly bigger brief case.

As for bringing a million pounds in a brief case – it isn’t going to work.

Would one million pounds fit in a suit case?

With a suitcase you can transport much more serious money. You can definitely fit a million in a suitcase using £20 notes. And using £50 notes you can easily lug two million pounds around.

What would one million pounds weigh?

One million pounds using £20 notes would weigh about 50kg! You’d have to be pretty strong to be able to carry it. If you put it in a suitcase and tried to check it on to an aircraft you’d be racking up some serious excess baggage charges. Luckily you’d have to cash on hand to pay for it!

Using £50 notes your million would weigh about 22kg. This would almost fit into your usual 20kg airline allowance. And if you put some of the notes in your hand luggage you’d completely escape any excess baggage charge.

If we go back to the suitcase example £100,000 of £20 bank notes in a briefcase would weigh about 5kg. If you add in the weight of the briefcase you still have a fairly portable brief case of cash.

What are the bank note dimensions?

For reference:

£20 – A twenty pound note is about 149x80mm, 0.113mm thick. About 1g in weight.

£50 – A fifty pound note is about 156x85mm, 0.113mm thick. And about 1.1g in weight.

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There are two types of power of attorney (PoA) in England. There is a lasting power of attorney (which replaced the enduring power of attorney), and the ordinary power of attorney.

The lasting power of attorney can be used to grant someone the power to handle your financial, property and health affairs if you are no longer able to deal with them yourself due to ages / illness / reduced mental capacity.

I’m not going to talk about the lasting power of attorney. I’m writing here about the ordinary power of attorney. I’m no legal expert so make sure you consult a proper solicitor before arranging anything, but maybe my experience will help you.

The ordinary power of attorney is a much more limited power, which can be used for very specific purposes. For example:

• Allowing a relative or trusted person to handle specific aspects of your finances if you go abroad.
• To allow someone to carry out a specific transaction on your behalf. Such as buying or selling a property for you, or extending your property’s leasehold.

Arranging one is very simple.

First find a solicitor. You can use the Law Society Find a Solicitor site to search for one.

You don’t actually need to find one near you as there is no need to meet up with the solicitor to arrange this. In fact you may find that if you use a solicitor in a ‘cheaper’ part of the country you’ll get a better rate than one in London for example.

Once you’ve picked a solicitor you should get a quote. You’ll need to tell them exactly what you want by phone or email. Sometimes email has advantages for these kind of dealings as what you want is in writing, and you have a record of your communications.

You’ll need to ask for something such as “an ordinary power of attorney to allow my father to arrange a lease extension for my flat”.

The solicitor should be able to give you a price – and in usual solicitor fashion they’ll probably quote it without VAT so you’ll have to take that into account. When I arranged an ordinary PoA I was quoted a figure of £95.00 + VAT. Which is £111.63.

If you are happy with the price give the go ahead. At this point you are committed to paying for the solicitor’s service.

The solicitor will need the full names and addresses of yourself, and the person whom you are granting the power of attorney to. This person is known as the ‘attorney’. You should also re-state what the scope of the PoA is.

You solicitor will then prepare the document. This will take them literally about one minute to do as all they do is to fill in some gaps on a PoA template. They’ll then probably post it to you.

When you get it you’ll probably see it is just a single page of A4 paper. First check that all the details are correct. Then you’ll need to sign it in the presence of a witness, who will also need to add their details to the form.

You’ll then need to post the form back to your solicitor. They may also ask you to send them some photocopied proof of your address and identity (such as a bill, passport, or driving licence). They’ll probably want your money as well at this point.

Then once they have received it they’ll check that you’ve filled it in correctly, photocopy it for their records, and send the original one back to you.

And that’s it. If the solicitor is efficient the whole process might be completed in about a week – and the only reason it takes this long is due to the posting of documents back and forwards.

It isn’t difficult to arrange, you can do it all by email and post. And at the end of it you get a single sheet of A4 paper for a cost of over £100. But if that piece of A4 paper allows you to do what you need it could be worth it.

Other options

If you want a cheaper option than going with a solicitor you can get off the shelf ordinary power of attorney forms from clickdocs and Desktop Lawyer . I can’t however vouch for what they service is like, or how easy their forms are to use.

Certainly if you are willing to pay the money to use a qualified solicitor arranging an ordinary power of attorney is very straight forward and quick.

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