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'm not the one with very narrow prejudiced opinions.

Oh, sorry, I thought we were talking about marginal tax rates, which is an accumulation of actual tax paid and the loss of income preserving allowances.

I agree with this actually. At the moment many MPs do it for the ego (ok, and maybe public service) because they're independently wealthy already, they don't need the money.

Of course there are complex reasons. But ambition and building a career should always pay more than just having any old job, working however many hours you fancy or not working at all. You can't have socialism when it comes to dishing out cash, but not when it comes to making it.

A) I have a degree and a PhD, but don't see myself as any more important than someone providing a much needed, sometimes essential, service role.
B) Again, how to you suppose to survive if everyone decided service roles or essential but low paid roles were 'below' them.

You get lots of money for yourself and your family, much more than average, if you're in the higher tax bracket.

And then we go back to my original point... you believe they are well paid. Generally, on a population average, they are. However, in comparison to the many smart and talented people who choose to go into industry and business, they are not. Politics will not attract high calibre workers on the promise of maybe getting £90k for four years in the indistinct future.

So, if everyone had ambition to get a better job, you'd happily volunteer to fill one of the essential but low paid roles? Stop vilifying the low paid and vilify those who pay them a pittance.

Your reply illustrates that they are well paid. Danke.

A) people on lower incomes need to assess the choices they made that lead them to low earning careers. A barista working tirelessly on a shift is all good and all but isn't worth the same as a neurosurgeon for example. DH and I both made good choices, both have master's degrees in stem fields. My DH works tireless and delivers value on projects for clients which is why he gets paid through big bucks.

Not every can be a neurosurgeon though

You are blessed with the capacity and circumstances to do so. A barista who is working hard and working at their capacity is worth just as much as someone who is a neuroscientist.

See how productive society is when everyone has to clear their own waste, make their own coffee, do their own shopping, clean their table after they've eaten, look after their own family in hospital, educate their own children at home, sweep the streets outside their home, take their refuse to the tip, etc.

These jobs that people scorn are there to make the people with higher paying roles more efficient.

You are blessed with the capacity and circumstances to do so. A barista who is working hard and working at their capacity is worth just as much as someone who is a neuroscientist.

Worth ‘just as much’ to whom? I can assure you that if my kid needed brain surgery the neurosurgeon would be bloody priceless, the coffee could wait.

Where have I vilified anyone?
And presumably you put your money where your mouth is? And you work/worked one of these roles yourself?
(I do work a low paid essential role, FYI)

@GehenSieweiter £90k for a job with no security of tenure, massive disruption to family life, media intrusiveness and an inherent risk of assassination. Dreamy.

Lots of time people in retail and hospitality work are students just doing something part time.

If you're stuck on a low paying job for your whole life, then what was the whole point of the education system? Maybe you should have worked a bit harder at school? I have a master's degree in engineering. My DH has an MBA.

“You are blessed with the capacity and circumstances to do so. A barista who is working hard and working at their capacity is worth just as much as someone who is a neuroscientist.”

No they are really not, because both myself, DH and our 3 children could train in a couple of days to be a good barista and do the job easily. Nor is being a barista an essential life saving thing either. I happily make my own coffee at home on my own machine! What absolute tosh. These are low skilled easily replaceable jobs by students and young people and most people out of a job without disabilities.

But maybe the neurosurgeon needed her coffee?

I've worked a variety of roles, with differing pay levels. None were easier or less stressful, just different.

I won't villify them and say they are bad people. They aren't. But they should be responsible for their own lives (as are we)

It's a lot more dreamy than the 0 hour contracts.

A human life is not morally more valuable than another human life, but a human life that is trained to do a role and has skills can be infinitely more economically valuable to society. There is a difference.
We have to make everyone as economically valuable to society by investing in them early as we can reasonably do. That does not mean we philosophically or morally value them as human beings any less.

Enormously wealthy??? I am in the top 10%. I am not wealthy. After tax I get the same as two average wage earners. But it took me nearly 30 years of hard work to get there. When I say hard work, I mean often sitting at my desk at 1 am to finish my work.

take doctors for example - senior consultants often earn a high salary - but that’s after years of study and training. If we tax people like that even more they will all leave to go to places like Australia where they are not punished for their work.

You know. My post was ill advised and I retract.

Interesting avoidance of the question.

So how do you suggest they proceed, in a way that society still functions? Perhaps their employers need to actually pay them a liveable wage? NMW isn't liveable for many, hence the need for additional support.

I was answering the question? What haven't I answered?