to think that the threshold for higher of income tax is far too low

[ReallyTired]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2721477/Surge-police-teachers-dragged-40p-tax-band-More-1-6million-employed-pay-higher-rate-decade-ago.html

Higher rates are starting to hit people in ordinary jobs. In 2003 there were no nurses paying the higher rate of tax and now there are 72,000 nurses in the higher tax band. Middle to high earners are the work horses of the UK economy and high taxes act as a disincentive to working harder or taking on more responsiblity. We need these people generate income to pay for benefits.

I feel that cutting of child benefit also harms the ecomony.

Yes it does discourage work.My dp refuses to do overtime now.40% for working silly hours on a weekend,no thanks.It's a bit shit when they have an urgent project to do and could really do with all hands on deck.

Also it's hardly an incentive for those on £30k to work hard for promotion.

Yanbu. It discourages people from wanting to earn more. I cut my hours so I'd earn less and pay a lower rate of tax. Working two less days per week didn't have much impact on my income once childcare savings were taken into account.

Someone said 40% tax and 9% NI. It is 42% tax and NI on those upper earnings.

Also the way the system works your family on say £13k is sometimes not much worse than someone on these net wages of 34K (the upper rate band net of tax as someone quoted above).
Indeed the benefits cap is £26k which is something like £34k before tax.
In other words we pay idle scroungers to sit on their bottoms doing nothing all day whilst the rest of us manage families and work full time.
This is the problem there are so many benefits like tax credits, child benefit and housing benefit that someone on a very low wage or no wage can have their pay made up to what someone payhing 42% tax./NI is and then the poor "higher earner" is subjected to inaccurate comments about how much those lower earners would love to have all the money, whereas in fact in net terms our high rate taxpayer with £34k net pay before her £10k a child childcare cost actually can have the same amount of net income as a benefits claimant!

What we need is a much much smaller state, stop ring fencing education, NHS and OAPs from the cuts and have one flat tax/NI rate of 33.3% for all on all levels of income and abolish all the complicated tax reliefs like for pensions, ISAs, Patent Box, film finance, charitable contributions and put capital gains tax up to 33.3% too so there is no incentive to render income capital for lower rates.

YANBU and agree with WitchWay.

For me, the disparity between wages is ridiculous. 1 person works 40 hours a week for £10 k, another works equally as hard for £££kkkkk . It's bollocks.

arethere...it depends what the job is surely. Some higher paid jobs require years of training and have huge amounts of responsibility and stress attached.

But the people who are being 'dragged in' are being dragged in because their personal allowance increased, as did everyone's to reduce the tax burden on the low earners.

So I don't think these new 'high rate taxpayers' are actually any worse off than they would have been on a low personal allowance and the basic rate.

The high rate is only on the bit over the threshold so everyone pays the same rate on the first £41k, then everyone earning £41-150k pays the same rate on that and everyone on £150k+ pays the 45% on the extra.

This feels fair to me and I will probably hit the 45% rate this year. And nope, I'm not slacking off, or not trying to do better because of this. Although I might put more into my pension this has a number of drivers, of which paying an extra 5% on the bit I earn over £150k will be a miniscule element.

For what it's worth I support a 50% tax over £100k. Which would cost me but I believe those with the broadest shoulders should bear the greatest burden.

I am not some genius, I work no harder than many on low incomes, I am bloody lucky. And I consider it a privilege to live in a society that takes care of the sick, the old, the less able.

yes it needs to go up, too low

I'm not saying there shouldn't be a difference bunnlemummy, just that it's currently far too large.

I'm right on the border - any pay rise would likely put me in higher rate tax. I've been there before in other jobs. Seems fine to me, but then I'm a socialist and happy to pay higher taxes in general.

I mean the £40,000 border not the even higher one!

When there are people that think 55k is not a high wage and that hrt should be for in excess of 200k I know I'm on Mnet.
YABU OP, the highest earners have always paid hrt.

Yanbu
And audeca, those statistics are only based on people on PAYE

If we obsess about a low marginal rate of income tax at both the starting rate and the higher rate then the threshold will be low. The income tax threshold should start at well above what a minimum wage job for 40 hours per week pays.

Well I suppose it is a bit low but I can think of a lot of other things that are far more unfair than this. I think there should be a 50 or 60% tax for really high earners. I don't agree with a flat rate tax. And I think the tax free allowance should be raised to around £15,000.

I imagine that with the new student loans system a senior teacher would be worse off than a lazy bum living on benefits. I never thought about the cost of student loan repayments, but at 9% of salary over 20K it needs to be factored in.

Student loan can be a huge lump of your salary. When DH finished paying his off we ended up with several hundred extra a month.

Vivien, see, I think it is unfair that people should pay a higher percentage of their earnings when they are already contributing more £££ anyway. 50-60% would be ridiculous.

I don't agree with 50 or 60% either. I think really up stamp tax on very expensive properties instead of ditching child benefit would have been better. I will never vote Tories again.

For people earning £150K a year or £200K a year why should they not pay a higher tax rate than somebody earning £45K. Why can't they pay more tax. They don't need all that money do they. Help I'm turning into a socialist.

I never realised the rules on personal allowances were so complicated.

www.hmrc.gov.uk/incometax/personal-allow.htm

Its no wonder that my eighty year old father has recently given up work. I feel that pensioners who are in employment should not lose their personal allowance when their income hits 27K. They are punished for being ecomonically active.

We need a tax system that encourages hard work. I don't agree with a 50% tax rate for really high earners as that discourages risk taking. A complex system encourages tax avoidance. Fewer people would use an accountant and get advice on minimising tax if it was a flat rate system.

It would be interesting to know how Iceland helps people on low income who suffer with a flat rate system.

Another agreeing with WitchWay.