AIBU to refuse extra hours when most of the pay goes in tax?

You don’t get to keep your earnings @JumpingPumpkin - hence it is slavery pretty much. What else is keeping only 35 p in the pound? Serfdom to the system.

Modern day slave?! For being a high earner?

Yanbu. I dont know why taxes aren't made more motivational - seems crazy that people can earn more on benefits than through work, that high earners also have a disincentive to work more etc

Maybe taxes should be at a flat rate - 25% - then it would always be motivational to earn.

@Darking ”That was a good scheme and it offset the “cliff edge” problem that has always been there.”

In what way has the cliff edge always been there?

Pre-2018 childcare vouchers had no upper earnings threshold. The 15 free hours and tax free childcare situation has been an issue since 2017 - and the real horror show cliff edge situation has been created by 30 free hours from 9 months, introduced in September 2025.

As an example:

• when child a went to nursery aged 9 months in 2023, their parents lost £2k in tax free childcare if they earned over the threshold.
• when child b went to nursery aged 9 months in 2026, their parents lost £2k in tax free childcare plus 30 free hours (this might be worth £12k+ for the hours alone) if they earned over the threshold.

The moving over described - how much has this temporarily and artificially boosted the Treasury coffers? What it is the overall figure in billions? And how will it impact our creditworthiness as a country?

Seems you really are PrettyDamnCosmic 😊

In the old days when my dd was born, childcare tax credits could be relieved at 40% as they were taken out of your pre-tax income. This then frozen so if you already paid into the scheme at 40% relief then you could carry on doing so, but if you stopped paying you couldn’t return.

The other weird rule was that you didn’t have to have children to pay for childcare tax credits! The amount went into a fund and when you wanted to spend it, you gave your code to whichever childcare provider who could claim the tax credit and it was paid to them.

So dh and I joined when we started ttc and had six months of childcare funds saved by the time dd1 arrived.

That was a good scheme and it offset the “cliff edge” problem that has always been there.

You are absolutely correct 👍👍👍👍👍🙌

“Angela Rayner has not refused to pay her tax.She referred herself in order to get a definitive answer about what is a very complex situation and she was getting different advice.”

I am 100 confident if I had bought a second flat I would have paid additional stamp duty. And then seen if I could claim it back as there is a mechanism from what I recall. It is there as some people sell their main residence later on. If it is complicated, you figure it out later if you can get it back legally!
For a politician and person in the public eye to not do that sets a very bad example. There are no excuses.

I work in public sector and when you earn over a certain amount (think it’s about £40k) you don’t usually get overtime. You are paid for the responsibility level to get the work done. So I’m not feeling much sympathy.

Angela Rayner has not refused to pay her tax. She referred herself in order to get a definitive answer about what is a very complex situation and she was getting different advice. She is trying to provide a secure home for her seriously handicapped son by putting her previously owned house in trust for him so he will always have a home. He was born very prematurely and is blind.

I wish... I wish they had some brain power to understand this.

But no, they've seen last Thu and their response? Oust Starmer to move further to the left. You couldn't make it up

@PrettyDamnCosmicI’m fairly sure when I earned this I paid £60k ish tax. As I mentioned before, private healthcare, dental, wellbeing benefits are all taxed. So the total bill was about £60k

Yes this should ensure you are still eligible for the 30 free hours and tax free childcare.

Your adjusted net income needs to below £100k - pension contributions can be used to lower your adjusted net income.

If your bonus has been paid out in April, you may find HMRC try and stop the payments and claim you will earn >£100k this tax year. You will need to tell them you will have an ANI of under £100k. This can take some negotiation, or so I have heard.

I do some extra hrs as a higher rate tax payer, as i’m buying a house and every little helps.

Ironically, the reason I got my payrise is because the company I work for wanted to address the gender pay gap. I got 20% and my female staff all got the same. Wasn’t sure what to make of this, I thought on the one hand it’s quite a radical thing to do but then on the other, it’s a tacit admission that they haven’t been paying the women enough. Our gender pay gap data is the same as the UK average.

Those are jobs that people spend years studying, competing and training for, and take over your life and free time. And if they didn't, they wouldn't be subsidising people who don't work that hard, and insulted for it at the same time.

Don't bite the hand that feeds...

Sorry for being a bit dim but can you explain this to
me please? I just had a payrise and because my bonus paid out in full, this tax year I will earn £100,370. I was planning on putting extra in my pension to bring it below £100k as I know they take the 20% off childcare and start eating in to your personal allowance but is this enough?? We already lost child benefit a few years ago. Thank you!

It is the patriarchy kicking in to punish successful women essentially. Make the higher earning women Aunts and the poor Handmaiden’s at the bottom and top up with all sorts of benefits at the bottom. I have two girls. I really do not know what to advise them to do in this country. It seems like being ambitious and having a family of your own is dead. Leave the top jobs to the men and go part time. Fucking disgraceful pile of sexist crap from both Tories and Labour.

I rounded up for simplicity. Nobody earning £150K per annum will pay as much as £60K combined income tax & NI. I didn't include deductions which for a GP will be at least a couple of thousand a year for BMA, MDU, RCGP, GMC etc
It's the norm that those earning the most pay the highest rate of tax. You are among the 16.8% who are higher rate taxpayers.

And this idea of we’ll just put it in your pension - it’s so short sighted. I do but I don't need to retire with a £2m pension pot (which only defers the tax btw as I’ll pay it on the way out). I need the money now to pay my bills and put back into the economy. My pension isn’t even invested in UK companies so there is no help to the economy there either. I would prefer to have the money now and spend it at the hairdresser, with a gardener etc. all of which will improve my local economy.

This. It’s also so fucking stressful. They fail to get your tax code right in time and then you are scrabbling around to find the extra tax / make pension contributions at the end of the year. My basic is £150k. I salary sacrifice down. I don’t know if I am going to get a bonus until the end of the year. Historically I get a significant bonus but there is no guarantee. When I get the bonus for going above and beyond and basically barely seeing my kids the majority of it is taken off of me. I might as well work less which is counter-intuitive for a government apparently trying to grow the economy.

My former employer/department only paid salaries reaching the 40% tax rate to people on personal contracts, who were expected to work ‘reasonable’ overtime without pay.
About a third of us who were offered this deal declined the opportunity, most agreed to it. Depends on your situation, ambition and how much you enjoy the work I suppose.

Unfortunately my job doesn’t really allow for part time in a meaningful way, and my childcare for two preschoolers is almost £5k a month now (we get 15 free hours for my eldest now which helps) and so I can’t sacrifice anything to my pension

But if that’s £60k tax, that’s still 40% tax on everything she’s earned. And she probably didn’t make provision for any extra.

I’ve just had my P60 and paid 43% tax last year, and when I do my self assessment I normally owe a bit more. It’s still a huge chunk of your paycheck, when you have to pay commuting costs, childcare, in the case of a GP possibly professional costs and courses also.