The top 10% of taxpayers contribute 60% of income tax...

[MsPinkMarshmallow]

I'm fed up of hearing that "high earners" will be targeted by the next budget.

The top 10% of taxpayers pay 60% of income tax.

Don't piss them off. They'll just leave the UK or work less so they're taxed less.

Some more stats: in 2024-25, the top 1% of income tax payers earned 13.3 per cent of total income and paid 28.2 per cent of income tax

35% of adults in the UK pay no tax at all

More from the Taxpayers Alliance here:

https://www.taxpayersalliance.com/briefing_share_of_income_tax_paid_by_percentile

<stands back and awaits kicking>

I find these sorts of posts ridiculous.
35% of people don't pay income tax? I'm a pensioner living on a state pension alone. So far I don't pay income tax on it. Nor should I.
You try living on c. £12,500 pa (and that includes my rent) and then decide whether you should be taxing it.

I've never earned over £60,000 in my life. Would happily do so and equally happily pay 60% tax on it.....quite frankly, I'd feel bloody rich.
If I were in the top 10% of earners I would expect to pay the highest amount of tax, and believe it would be my social duty to do so. I'd still have a fantastic standard of living, more than many could ever aspire to.

But more than this, I feel it's terribly sad that all our measurements of pleasure/contentment or 'fairness' are based on financial values.

Here’s a thing: when I get a small annual pay rise of a few percent, I get to keep 80%, so about £800. Lucky me. If I was super rich and got a similar small increase, I would get to keep ‘only’ 40%, so about £3,000. So yes, I would work to get that £3,000. That’s the advantage of being super rich…

If you want a wealth tax so that the billionaires leave, which would then result in needing to cut benefits etc as the people that currently pay for them now won't be here. Why not just jump to the point of cutting benefits now?

Imaginary money that you havent got and haven't worked for is the easiest to give away isn't it?
Sadly, the country doesn't run on hypothetical generosity.

I would never try living on state pension alone because I would never be so daft as to not save anything for retirement. I very much doubt if you’d earned £60,000 you’d have been happy to lose 60% of it to tax, very easy to say.

Ridiculous statement.

Why? Do you want to cover tax they paid?

agreed.

utterly absurd.

Why? Do explain.

Why? Do explain.

No.

I agree with you OP - people earning in the 70k to 125k bracket fall into the top 10% but that's the squeezed middle - any tax rises affect this group despite what the lower earners want to believe. Why the govt does not grow a pair of balls and go after the top 1% instead (the millionaires and billionaires) who will actually be tye population that don't feel it - is beyond me. Unless they know they are able to dodge tax anyway with legal entities etc. And then go after the big companies like Google etc who pay minimal tax due to their business structure. It boggles the mind why the middle always has to shoulder the rises - apart from the government clearly being worried about the business fallout. Who rules the country ? Its not the govt for sure . And watch the housing market crash like never before if they put on cgt on main residences - there would be no incentive anymore to move or even own a property - or is this the long term plan ??? Lower earners will always disagree because any amount more than min wage or below average is unfathomable. Once you get there you realise there's marginal benefit and for what - the effort /reward doesn't always stack up . This govt will further divide the population where even a bigger divide exists between the 1% and the rest

Very glad DH and I have already left! Both in this bracket.

When my DHs salary went up to £100k we were both surprised at the generosity of the tax system and the level of reliefs allowed.

If someone on £100k puts £40k a year into a sipp they will pay less tax than someone on £40k a year. Someone on £40k with no pension contributions has an effective tax rate of 22%, someone on £100k with £40k into a sipp has an effective tax rate of 19%.

This never seems to make the headlines, all the fuss is around the 60% rate at £100k to £125k but this can be easily mitigated.

My understanding is thd IMF would impose conditions like cutting spending, so yes that is a worry if you rely on benefits, but they would also advise increasing taxes. (They also want political stability and lower inflation)

So if people feel we should cut spending now as it will be imposed anyway, maybe we should also increase taxes now too as it would be imposed anyway.

Like everyone people want the half that doesn't affect them to happen, but if these ' society will collapse, the imf will be worse' predictions happens, both parties are impacted.

But that is your situation and you can afford to put that money away- many earning that cannot put it into sipp! They have to use every penny for mortgage, possibly supporting elderly parents financially or kids financially etc. Just because you can doesn't mean it helps . Most people do not have the luxury of this

It’s like when as an employer you try to tell unions “if we don’t make this small change the business won’t be viable and there won’t be any jobs at all” and they don’t care. Unite have ax try ally said to me they’d rather the business go under than concede anything!

The highest salaries in the UK are ridiculously high and the gap between the top earners and everyone else is huge. Often pay jumps for promotions at these pay levels are bigger 'to take account of the tax'.

They are paying so much because their salaries are incredibly, incredibly high.

Inequality in the UK has worsened. Tax on higher incomes is not the issue. My family are one of those who pay a lot of tax. We could afford to pay more, more so than those on lower incomes could afford to pay more.

This is nonsense. There are so many “what am I entitled to” threads and if anyone DARES question it, the same old drivel is spouted. I do not think anyone resents contributing to those who cannot work. I know I certainly don’t. But, parts of my own family are third generation unemployed, they openly, freely admit that they could work but “why should they”. They know exactly how to play the system. What they are others like them are claiming is not “pennies” and I do not for one second believe they are remotely unusual.
And no, I don’t feel “hard done by” at all. What I do feel is personally responsible for myself.

I don't think all high earners week move out the UK. I choose to live in Scotland where we pay even more tax as high earners. I pay £2k per year more then if I was in England. And I'm comfortable paying it. I'm moving house next week, and the Land and Building Tax is 30% more than in England. Up here, while not perfect, I do see more public services. I earn more than I have ever done in my life, and if giving up a decent proportion of it in income tax is part of that, then so be it. I still have a shed load more money than many people.

It's time that high earners stopped moaning about it.

What I would prefer to talk about is productivity, crazy constant rise in housing costs that make the wealthy feel richer and the poor suffer, the tax dodging and greedflation that's all around us.

You are missing the point that not everyone can afford to put that amount into a pension. Some people have mortgages and childcare costs to pay. £100k is approx £5600 after a 5% pension contribution, less if you have a student loan. Mortgage for a basic two bed terrace where I live (assuming 10% deposits) would be around £2k, plus £2k minimum for childcare (I have colleagues who pay £3k per child) plus £495 for a monthly train pass (which excludes getting to the station or parking). So £4.5 gone without any other food or bills.

I think it is a good idea that the tax system incentivises people to invest in pensions. If on £100k and they put in £40k they will still have £60k (minus the 19% tax) left for day to day spending which is far more than most people earn and they will also get the benefit of long term compounding of both the sum they put in and the tax relief. It would be far better for them financially to do this than get a big mortgage.

And when it costs £2k to fund a mortgage on a two bed terrace and £3k to fund a mortgage on a three bed semi, what choice do you have other than getting a big mortgage?

Just listening to RR now ... I blame trump for it all 😂

Well, I'd say that 0.63% of the UK's millionaires leaving the UK every year is quite significant, when our tax revenue is so highly skewed towards them. You'll have to pay more tax/have fewer state services to make up for the loss of their annual injection of cash into the UK.

The article you posted is a bit silly, moving glibly between the UK's migration figures and worldwide migration, and with no sense of context - particularly how much of a county's tax revenue depends on their millionaires, how much of the corporate growth depends on them (and how much the country depends on that corporate growth).

I mean a clue to how silly it is might be when the article compares the UK's exodus to India and South Africa and suggests that means we're OK.

Just leaving this graph here...