Exercise 2: Manchester vs. Edinburgh at £42,000 — Possible Solution
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This expectation is roughly, but not exactly, accurate - the real
figures are close at this specific income level, even though the two
tax systems are genuinely different. In Manchester, £42,000 falls
entirely within the rUK Basic rate band (£12,571-£50,270 at 20%),
giving a real tax bill of 20% on £29,430 (£42,000 minus the £12,570
Personal Allowance), which is approximately £5,886.

In Edinburgh, Sam's own real Scottish calculation for £42,000 spans
the Starter, Basic, and Intermediate bands, totaling approximately
£5,971 - about £85 more than the friend's Manchester figure.

The real, honest point here is that this specific income level happens
to land in a part of the Scottish bands (Intermediate, 21%) that's
close to the rUK Basic rate (20%), so the difference is genuinely
small at £42,000 - unlike Chapter 8's own £48,000 example, where
crossing into Scotland's 42% Higher band produced a real ~£1,050 gap.
The size of the real difference depends heavily on exactly where an
income falls relative to each system's own band boundaries, not on a
single fixed "Scotland costs more" rule.

ANSWER: The expectation is close to accurate at this specific income -
Manchester's real tax is approximately £5,886, Edinburgh's is
approximately £5,971, only about £85 apart. This is a much smaller
gap than at higher incomes (like Chapter 8's £48,000 example), because
£42,000 happens to sit in a part of the Scottish bands close in rate
to the rUK Basic rate - the real size of the difference depends on
exactly where the income falls, not a fixed percentage gap.

WHY THIS WORKS AS AN ANSWER
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This correctly computes both real figures for this specific income
level and honestly notes the gap is small here, contrasting it with
the much larger gap at a different income level covered earlier in
the course, rather than assuming Scotland always costs meaningfully
more.