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?

Unmember, that could be the case for HR taxpayers too. You don't know what their outgoings are.

The marginal tax rate for people coming off benefits and into work can be as high as 90%. If you are only paying 30-50% consider yourself lucky.

how else are we going to keep the benefits gang in the style to which they are accustomed if we dont fork out from our taxes

YABU

My full time salary is 65k so I pay a lot of tax.

However that's life. I live in a decent country where if I have a heart attack, the NHS will be there. If I want to go for a drive, I have a decent road to drive on. I don't live in fear of criminals as the police are there.

When I was young, I was taken into foster care and the state paid for me to have a decent home, decent education and stopped me becoming a drop out. Thank fuck we have a welfare system paid by taxes. I've been to countries where they don't and believe me, it's humbling seeing rows of shanty towns on your way to the touristy naice areas.

Yes step out, but why should everyone have sympathy for them but not the HR taxpayers who could be in the same situation.

manicbmc - I think a large may be necessary with my

Why not just think of the amount he earns as his net salary rather than his gross?

After all, he never had the money he pays in tax, it is deducted at source.

Then have a big sit down and perhaps a cup of tea. Or a fag. There's a lot of tax on those.

Yabvu - what about if 10 years down the line, for whatever reason, you both cannot work or aren't earning so much any more, and have to rely on CTC and WTC?

Stepout - that's true but I do think that once you become a higher earner other family members look to you with expectation - quite rightly - so what I'm saying is that the high earner is far more likely to be picking up nursing home fees etc.

If OP doesn't know who Winnie the Pooh is, is it really surprising that she didn't know higher earners pay 40% tax?

Unmember, that could be the case for HR taxpayers too. You don't know what their outgoings are.

But it's easier to pull in your belt when it's twice the size of everyone else's.

Bit early for

winnie YANBU. on MN you can say you want to do the right thing for your family/your DCs, unless it involves paying less tax....

have you looked at salary sacrifice to lower your taxable income?

Why do you think that Unmember? It depends on what their financial commitments are.

My heart bleeds...
You mention, on page 1, " the people who benefit" from your DH's taxes; surely that includes you, as you don't pay any?
Do you think your DH might be subsidising you?

Why do you think that Unmember? It depends on what their financial commitments are.

Because the majority of the population manage to do it. Financial commitments can be changed/rearranged/replaced. Where there's a will, there's a way. But the OP isn't moaning about not being able to make ends meet. She's just moaning about the amount of tax they pay.

• the amount of tax her husband pays

Exactly Unmember, you cut your coat to suit your cloth, as the saying goes.

Why is it acceptable for people who have been receiving tax credits which have now been reduced to get in a tizz and expect the rest of us to have sympathy, but it's unacceptable for people who feel aggrieved at paying vast amounts of tax to have their say?
Can't quite believe you wrote this.

Because it's the difference between eating or not, the difference between having the heating on or not, paying the rent. With your income I sincerely doubt that you have to wonder whether to eat or not on Wednesday and work out that if you do, will the kids go without.

YANBU.

We should certainly move towards a flat tax - including job tax (aka National Insurance). That flat tax rate should be around 20-25%.

I don't mind paying tax. I do wish it was used more efficiently.

A few years back my friend applied to the civil service for a number of jobs. She didn't get in. Fair enough. She then ends up getting a temp job, through an agency, in the civil service. She discovered that the agency was receiving £x per month for placing her - in a job in an organisation to which she had already applied. £x per month was the same as I was paying in income tax at the time, in a £60k a year role. So my entire (pretty hefty) tax contribution was going to an agency for "finding" her. That's just one example. There will be many others. That kind of nonsense makes me resent paying tax. It is often used so poorly.

The banding in all wrong. 50% doesn't kick in until 150K? The 40% kicks in far too low. 40K isn't a huge amount down here when you have to earn 9K to just cover annual fares and then get taxed at 40%. Much better to have a 30% band for e.g. 30K - 50K and gradually rise to 50% at 100K. People won't leave the country in droves they will just have more creative accountants.

Where does you oh salary come from?
Who actually funds it, ultimately?

People could argue that he doesn't deserve such a high salary or a bonus, a least not more than other people.

People who are having their tax credits cut to nothing are the ones who should be complaining. People are finding it hard enough to keep their heads above water as it is, without tax credit being cut as well.

You cannot compare your situation to those, if you have a family income of nearly £4000 a month, you obviously cannot comprehend the position other people are in and you can't seriously expect sympathy.

I sincerely hope your DH never loses his well paid job, or you never find yourself in the position where you need help from the government, or the nhs or the state education system or any of the other things that your DHs tax pays for.

I've got no problem with the OP having a moan, but it's her lack of realtistic perspective that bothers me.

No one likes having to give up part of their income, but would I rather see people starve than pay the percentages that DP and I do? Hell no. And we're not even higher rate payers.