We have to pay tax on everything, if you earn over £40,000, 40% is taken off in tax and 11% of everything you earn is taken off in national insurance, so you get less than half of what you earn if you make a decent wage.
Company car gets taxed, any money you make on investments gets taxed.
To import a car there is 27.5% tax on it, wnated to import a mustang but taxes on it are a bitch. If you inherit anything most of it gets taxed at 40%, and the list of taxes goes on, I believe we have over 40 different ones.
The cost of living here is way too high. The average house price is £260,000 (520,000$) and that will only get you around 2000 sq.ft.