To feel that having nearly half of your salary taken away is just not right?

[WinnieTheWho]

I don't earn enough to pay tax & NI but my DH has a pretty good job & salary for which he works BLOODY hard. I was horrified to work out after last pay day that for EVERY £1 he earned, he only kept 60 pence. This is due to a combination of paying very high income tax and NI, as well losing all of his personal allowance because he might get a bonus at the end of the year! It just seems that if you work hard to get paid well and you are a PAYE taxpayer, the Government & HMRC will just shaft you from all angles. It just makes me wonder why we bother? So... AM I BEING UNREASONABLE?

The heat just makes the sweating, hurting bones and pounding headache worse bumbley

And my garden is looking fab ATM too..

My garden looks like it's been scalped. The new mower is taking it's time and keeps trying to escape into next doors garden :o

:( you poor thing. Hope the weather stays nice so you get a chance to enjoy it when you're feeling better!

Did I miss it all?

YANBU. Its punishing people for working harder. Unless you earn the excess money easily with little effort, its hardly worth putting a huge effort and hours of work (at the office and at home) to only keep half of it after NI. The 40% tax rate affects far more people than before and so many in this country who should have a comfortable lifestyle struggle to get by. Also get a bit sickened by hearing higher rate taxpayers vilified as if they are some kind of terrible criminals.

Flat rate tax to help people and boost the economy I say.

How will flat rate tax boost growth in, say, the north-east?

God geegee888, get that ridiculous idea that people on higher salaries necessarily work harder. What a load of crap.

Some do, sure. Some don't. Some have had an awful lot more help than others to get where they are.

Tell me one economically successful country with a flat rate of tax. It doesn't work.

Geegee, income has absolutely nothing to do with working hard, although it can help.

If anyone feels unmotivated to work hard they wouldn't do it would they. So continuing to do so and moan is as far as they get.

Ooh I've been deleted

Really? Well, thats strange, because the harder I work, the more work I take home to prepare for the next day, the longer hours I put in, the more complex work I do, the more I've progressed and seen my salary rise. I'd be grateful then if you could tell me how I could have achieved this without all my hard work. Ditto getting good grades at school to get into a degree which is extremely hard to get into?

catgirl, I saw that. I have been trying to guess what you might have said!

surely generally the more you get paid, the longer hours you are expected to work?

e.g. HT working longer hours than a teacher.

NB: i know there are exceptions so i am only talking overall.

geegee According to your logic minimum wage workers don't work hard at all? Is that what you honestly believe?

I was a bit off with a poster, but only because she called another poster "a scounger" for being on benefits.

I think I may have been deleted because she was and it say "replies may also be deleted". (Obviously my posts are too wonderous to be deleted for any other reason :) )

She called me a twat

No one's saying you didn't work hard.

Some of us work hard, for fuck all pay, and don't whinge that they have to pay tax.

I went to one of the best unis in the country. Went into teaching. I don't sit here whinging that I should be exempt from tax because I'm already helping people.

Are our hearts meant to bleed for you that you work so hard and then the nasty government takes your tax? Because when I've worked a 60 hour week and about to go and do more now, honestly, I just see you as a bit of a spoiled brat.

I'm a dentist, not a spoilt brat. And I'm just as entitled to my view as a minimum wage worker.

Yes, I do think we should be thinking about measures such as flat rate tax or some other more effective measures, since this country isn't doing that well with the present system. Many Northern European countries have all but eradicated poverty. Why not the UK?

Because too many people in the UK would rather line their pockets than reduce poverty.

Yellow, no one has said they should be exempt from tax.

geegee888, er, because they have massive rates of tax...maybe that's the reason?

Again, tell me the economically viable country with a flat rate of tax.

And bumbley, where did I say that anyone was saying that? Bit of a strawman you're chucking up there.

You've just found out what the national tax rate is? Really?? You ought to pick up the newspaper a bit more often.

"I don't sit here whinging that I should be exempt from tax..."

Suggests that what you think people are doing. Fair enough if you aren't. It just sounds that way.

Exempt from a higher rate of tax is what I meant.

Didn't Christine Lagarde recommend that the UK reduced tax to stimulate the economy if the downturn continued just last week?

Flat rate of tax - which countries - and how much growth? That's what I'd like to know.

I only know of one near our shores, the Isle of Man, and there are really big worries there about public services now the UK has burst the VAT bubble.

Maybe what we could do is say that earnings under £15k don't get taxed and after that it's a flat rate.

Then we could get the government independently audited and with members held to account for squandering public money.

While I'm on the subject, we could build a block of flats for MP's to stay in while they are in Westminster, so we would have none of this claiming expenses bollocks for places that they got for free (are you reading this, Baroness Warsi?) and they can have vouchers for the Westminster canteen. No receipt = no expenses!