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?

tinkerbel - you know nothing about me except what i have chosen to post. Don't presume that just because I don't earn enough to pay tax & NI that I don't work bloody hard too

Er... Where did the op say she was a SAHM? She said in the op that she earns below the threshold. So presumably she works part time, or in a very low paid low skill job. In either of those circumstances (and indeed if she were a SAHM) then she should be thankful her dh DOES earn a lot. It's what enables her to earn so little.
My view is nothing to do with criticising SAHP (I was one for 2 years). I just don't have much truck with women who have this sense of entitlement about having a high earner husband

Sc, your 'luxuries are not a right' wouldn't go down so well if this was a benefits thread.

I've been a higher-rate taxpayer and then I was made redundant and was unemployed for over a year. I see the tax I paid was part and parcel of living in a society that has - or, at least, had - a big enough safety net that meant my children and me weren't out on the streets when I lost my job.

Sure it rankles a bit to know that there are some people out there who have no intention of doing anything other than living off benefits when they could be being productive members of society.

On the other hand I suspect they do less damage to society and the UK's finances than the (coincidentally higher-rate tax paying) utter fuckwits who were trading debt packages and investments they couldn't be bothered to understand and who were only looking for a quick buck rather than thinking about the fact that they were helping to build a giant bubble of global debt that would inevitably pop. Oh, and the (coincidentally higher-rate tax paying) useless tosspots in the Bank of England, FSA and other regulatory bodies whose job it was to spot this kind of thing happening but, er, didn't until it was way too late.

Strange how none of them lost their jobs for incompetence even while hundreds of thousands were being made redundant as a result.

Fwiw I do agree that luxuries are not a right but I don't think that makes it ok to take a big chunk of someone's salary.

How do people feel about introducing a flat rate of 30%?

But, OP, while you don't earn enough to pay Tax and NI, you still benefit from the system they go to support - schools, healthcare, child benefit etc. So, maybe try and think about the fact that the 40p in every pound your DH pays in is from both of you. 20p each per £1 you earn (over a certain amount) as a family is not a massive hindrance when you look at what it gives you and your family in return.

And let's not forget companies like Emma Harrison's A4E, riddled with fraud while she became a multi-millionaire on the back of taxpayers.

Op if everyone did what you do ie not pay tax and ni where would we be then? If you look at your family as a whole you might feel a little better about it but I doubt it

X post with GnocchiNineDoors

Not sure which gets people's goats more: grumbling about not having enough benefits or grumbling about paying high taxes.

I don't have a problem with those earning in excess of £42,000 paying 40% tax.

I do however have a problem with those who milk the system.

Say a 20 year old who chooses to get pregnant, has no intention of working and then claims homelessness.

That one person in their actions has probably bleed the tax income of 10 decent hard working people.

Is it just me that as a voter (please tell me that you DO vote given your outrage), you have only just realised this.

Where exactly have you had your head buried?

I'm a higher rate tax payer, the reason I pay more tax is because I earn more money. I think you are being utterly ridiculous tbh, is it just a way of letting everyone know your DH has a well paid job?

I dont really understand why you are complaining,if you earn a higher wage, you pay more tax.
If you want a blanket rate tax, that would mean you would have to pay tax on your earnings, wouldn't it?
If there was one rate for everyone, surely that will not benefit people like yourself, below the current tax threshold

Oh, and the (coincidentally higher-rate tax paying) useless tosspots in the Bank of England, FSA and other regulatory bodies whose job it was to spot this kind of thing happening but, er, didn't until it was way too late.

Don't forget the MPs and members of tge cabinet, sit Fred was also a very good friend of the next in line to tge throne.

"Fwiw I do agree that luxuries are not a right but I don't think that makes it ok to take a big chunk of someone's salary.
How do people feel about introducing a flat rate of 30%?"

Given that a certain total amount of tax is required to pay the country's bills, reducing one person's tax simply means that someone else must pay more.

If as a high tax payer you want to pay less, please tell us which lower earning person you want to be paying more?

What Warren said.

No one pays 40% tax, they might pay that in income tax, but it's not like NI is an optional extra, I do think more people would complain if the actual amount of tax they paid was pointed out, including the employers part of NI. (which many companies do take into consideration when setting salaries, so is taken off what your labour is 'worth' to the company)

It's a lot of money, we are very highly taxed in this country, there does become a point when the people we need the most (the highest earners) start questioning what's in it for them. Depressingly, we are living in a time when people are very mobile, and the people who are feeling over taxed seem to not be that highly paid...

Meh.

The fact that I can get medical treatment, education for my children and not see Britains children starve far outweigh the inconvenience of DH having to pay 40% tax.

Wow, OP. I am super excited to hear about your brilliant new plan for keeping the country running without higher rate tax payers.

[sits down cross-legged with "listening really hard" face on]

OP, I don't get why you're moaning. You don't pay ANY tax.

The real issue should be what tax revenue is wasted on not what people pay.

If that was properly addressed we'd all be better off.

Link to article about 30% tax proposal.

Sallying, I don't think it's as basic as that. Clearly though, you think it's wrong to take a big chunk of someone's salary if they earn under £x. Why does it become right/fair just because someone earns more?

don'tmindifIdo, that's rubbish. Right wingers have been bleating 'ooh, if you expect the rich to pay their fair share they'll all leave the country' for decades. Oddly enough they never do. Even back in the day when we had more than 50% tax for extreme higher earners, the country somehow managed, even when we had lots of tax exiles.

I'd rather keep lower taxes for low earners. This allows everyone to be more likely to afford the basics, at least.