@Purple , I've broken this off in a new thread because I think it got lost in the other thread.
We are one of these families with a high income and childcare costs. For now its manageable because its only one child but when the second starts in childcare, the cost of childcare will easily exceed our mortgage payments and really eat into our disposable income for the next 4/5 years. We have made a big effort to fund pensions and overpay the mortgage so that we can manage our own cashflow when this happens so we'll be fine
While we would obviously benefit from reduced childcare costs, I don't think they should be made tax deductible. That is probably too much of a benefit for a select few and would possibly result in costs climbing further anyway.
The real issue I see is that childcare is a major cashflow headache for most families, even the high earners. I would much prefer to see a system in place to help parents manage the cashflow whereby you can choose to pay 50, 60, 70% of the monthly cost and then continue this rate of payment after childcare has finished, e.g. stretch 4/5 years cost over 8/10 years
The major advantage to this as I see it is that it can keep both parents working and funding pensions. I think it is crazy that in a household with a €50/60k and a €100k salaries, they would have similar net incomes after accounting for joint assessment and no cost of childcare. But what many don't see is that there are unseen "costs" to doing this such as missing out on pension contributions.
From a national level, I also think it is crazy that well educated and skilled people are leaving the workforce for a few years because of the financial burden for those 3/4 years. The decision to raise your own children should be made for family reasons, not for financial reasons.
Make mortgage interest payments and childcare costs tax deductible while at the same time increasing property tax on PPR's
There is a serious flaw in the conversation about wealth, what it is and how we tax it. Income is not wealth, in the context of housing it is what we use to acquire someone else's wealth (by paying off a mortgage) or to access someone else's wealth (by paying rent). Here's an example of two...
www.askaboutmoney.com
We are one of these families with a high income and childcare costs. For now its manageable because its only one child but when the second starts in childcare, the cost of childcare will easily exceed our mortgage payments and really eat into our disposable income for the next 4/5 years. We have made a big effort to fund pensions and overpay the mortgage so that we can manage our own cashflow when this happens so we'll be fine
While we would obviously benefit from reduced childcare costs, I don't think they should be made tax deductible. That is probably too much of a benefit for a select few and would possibly result in costs climbing further anyway.
The real issue I see is that childcare is a major cashflow headache for most families, even the high earners. I would much prefer to see a system in place to help parents manage the cashflow whereby you can choose to pay 50, 60, 70% of the monthly cost and then continue this rate of payment after childcare has finished, e.g. stretch 4/5 years cost over 8/10 years
The major advantage to this as I see it is that it can keep both parents working and funding pensions. I think it is crazy that in a household with a €50/60k and a €100k salaries, they would have similar net incomes after accounting for joint assessment and no cost of childcare. But what many don't see is that there are unseen "costs" to doing this such as missing out on pension contributions.
From a national level, I also think it is crazy that well educated and skilled people are leaving the workforce for a few years because of the financial burden for those 3/4 years. The decision to raise your own children should be made for family reasons, not for financial reasons.