Getting vilified as a high earner

[MagicMondays]

DH and I are both high earners. We do highly skilled and quite niche professional jobs which involved most of our 20s spent grafting, living apart, anti social hours etc when our friends were all having more fun! Both jobs still demand long hours and have a lot of responsibility. We have two DC and it's a struggle to sort childcare that works and make sure one of us is around for them. Our mortgage is huge (cos London) on a run of the mill Victorian terrace.
We obviously get no allowances - no personal allowances on income tax, no 30 hours childcare, no child benefit etc. Our tax bill is huge.
No issue with any of that. High earners should pay a disproportionate amount into the system to support others/redistribute wealth etc.

What I can't get my head around is how much people in the UK seem to dislike people like me. I see it on these boards all the time. People demanding I pay more tax, people complaining high earners are not as deserving as nurses, teachers etc, my own family making unfavourable comparisons with others.
We don't live a flash lifestyle at all - ordinary clothes, old car, not really interested in grand holidays, posh restaurants etc. You wouldn't know other than from knowing the jobs we do that we must have a good income.

I'm just a bit tired of this idea that people like me are arseholes in some way. I'm really not!

@Walkaround fine, no complaints for paying more. It is the added vitriol towards anyone more than average that makes me resentful.

Well pay has been frozen for 4yrs for one thing. And some ppl are in that role because they negotiated flexible working but now cant move upwards because they would lose it.

And when your union goes to fight for a pay increase and those snr managers say no, then think its okay to sit on a call again how crap it is they aren't getting bonuses again...think the problem isn't the person on 20k. Its thr tone deaf attitude of people on more.

It's pretty easy to leave the UK and service clients from overseas with vastly lower tax rates. You might so what but the more of us that leave the fewer people are left to pay for the services that you use.

60% of tax is paid by 10% of the people. Imagine if the top 1% go? Which schools will you close? What surgeries will you cancel? How many policemen will you fire?

I'm confused by your post. I'm just appreciate your situation and perhaps try and understand where other people are coming from. Why so vague re your professions? I'm a dentist and my my DP is a consultant anesthetist. We're high earners, we pay high taxes and work hard but frankly have a wonderful life I'm incredibly grateful for 💃

Stop whining- seriously a good income, a good home and you moan? Ridiculous

The problem with some high earning people is entitlement. They often delude themselves into believing that they need to live/maintain a certain level of lifestyle because they're owed it.

I've known high earners to fall on hard times but instead of cutting back or downsizing, maintain the Land Rover Disco, mortgage and other fripperies via credit cards or loans.

"Why don't you sell up and buy a smaller house?"

"Oh I couldn't live in a small house" 🙄

And then moan about the complexities of life.

I’ve never had an easy work life, being slower than most, working in care and retail.
i eventually had to leave over health issues, and things worked out money wise, I was never lazy tho, we can’t all work harder.
Tho it was implied I should have, and had a boss who implied I had a stroke, no I have Parkinson’s that affects my right side.
You are aware folk are worse off than you, the way things go, some more successful than others

And if you keep on running, you’ll end out of viable countries to run away to.

@Jonnywishbone

You know the whole the rich will just leave bollocks is just bollocks right?

The 1% should be grateful the 99 put up with them, not the other way round

I was a high earner (now retired) and in my opinion you should stop worrying about what other people think, be proud of what you contribute, but also be humble and live to your means. i always felt that the top earners should pay more tax than currently. And especially today, where health and social care is breaking down, and people can’t feed their kids :(

Paying a higher rate of tax is a privilege and helps fund the services that made the UK a pleasant and civilised country.

I think you overstate your importance.

Umm did you read anything I wrote?

Leave your job then. I've explained the training is there and is flexible (eg your employer might not be flexible but that doesn't matter plenty of training is!). Why would you stay in the job you have outlined? Why not take responsibility for yourself and retrain and move jobs?

Perhaps the problem is the person making excuses about why they won't look for a better paid role?

We could, easily, spread the 1% earnings out among everyone and still have the same tax income

Oh dear OP, I think you need a new financial planner. If you are serious then whoever is advising you doesn’t understand taxes at all!

Johnny doesn't appear to be aware of the recruitment and retention crisis facing most sectors....

Ridiculous comment, if you think the problem is 30k earners not appreciating how high your bills are, you know you could live a 30k lifestyle on 160k right? You have that option. It's not that your bills are higher, you have more chosen luxuries.

So the 1% have left the UK and the income isn't in the UK anymore. That means tax take is down 28%, so you are looking at firing 1/3rd of public sector workers.

In this hypothetical scenario

Haven't read all the replies, but to answer the question why do [some] people resent high earners, I would say it is because a lot of people have not had the opportunities in life to become high earners.

Factors such as emotionally stable family life, good advice, social capital, good education, access to useful information, learning the most effective ways to behave, being expected to have the confidence and the ambition, etc etc.

It's not a level playing field.

This is just pathetic, truly. Most high earners are well aware of what their money can give them. And are content.

This is not to say there isn't a sub-species who nurtures a gripe about tax as they earn more. It motivates them - and also makes them dismissive.

BTW I'm not on 20k but I know ppl who are they are ppl who don't have spare money to retrain cos that money is soaked up now due to cost of living.

I'm on 50k and have 1k disposable income every month so I can absorb the cost of living increases.

What I dont do is then sit in a meeting infront of colleagues who are on less than me and moan how its unfair im not getting a bonus or how the cost of living is affecting me just as much as everyone else. And if I was someone who made decisions on employees payrises and had voted no, I especially wouldn't sit in meetings telling ppl that we are all in the same boat.

Do you understand how tone deaf that is.

You’re a big one for running away and evading responsibilities, aren’t you? It seems a frightening number of people in teaching and healthcare are following your advice.

A) no they wont

B) as youve said, plenty others would be able to fill the shoes/ earn the money

The outrage isn't that 1% are paying 60%of the tax

The outrage is that 1% are paying 60% of the tax

The big issue with tax is the highest earners hide assets offshore and dodge taxes...much like the prime ministers wife..,

This business about high earners all leaving because they are asked to pay a bit more tax is overstated. Yes some would leave, and the reduced opportunities due to Brexit make this a little more likely, but for most this is where they feel at home. They have kids in school here, and wouldn’t uproot unless they already had their eye on somewhere else.