DH and I going part time to deliberately reduce wages

[Bucketheadbucketbum]

Just working out the free childcare hours and actually DH and I will be muxh better off if we both dropped to 3- 4 day week to deliberately reduce our incomes. Would obviously be nice way to live too! Anyone else doing same? Seems mental but we've looked at it 100 times over and it's true!

@ScruffyGiraffe I agree with you 100%. I am triple worse off as a single parent a) I have to pay all the bills on my own b) I have to do/pay for all the childcare myself c) I have to work full time and I pay far more tax than a double earner household with the same gross income.
My neighbours who both retired at 60 on gold plated pensions do nothing all day except walk their dogs, do gardening and go on holiday (there is no hope of me retiring at 60). They never tire of telling me that it is “only fair” their income is taxed individually and not as a household, despite sharing all their bills and expenses…
Obviously two votes are worth more than one so what political party is ever going to change this?

And when all the high earners are sick of being bled dry by the taxman to pay for others,and leave to become digital nomads, who’ll pick up the tab then?
Think very carefully about the future because right now there’s an exodus of older high earners from the workforce ,which is panicking the government. If Labour get in then they’ll likely re-introduce the 98% tax on high earners,like decades past and then the shit will really hit the fan. There will be no more money left, talent will leave,young and old and the only way to stop it will be if the Marxists go full North Korean and you cannot escape. If you want to join the escapees then a full and decent cv will be required.

I suppose I had hoped that other women, who purportedly care about women and children's rights, might if they actually understood the discrimination and impact it has, stand up for us and demand change and that we get taxed equally. Not asking for any favours here! Just not to be taxed MORE than a two parent household with the same income on top of obviously having to do everything financially and physically with half of the time available.

But it seems I was naive to think people would support that, just out of a sense of basic fairness. Just am even playing field financially, with us still having to do the same in half of the hours. But even that it too much to ask it seems and with some exceptions of a few lovely posters, me explaining the reality of it has been met with some pretty disgraceful and spiteful comments.

All very depressing and I guess that means you're right, that nobody will campaign for fairness on this issue. Tories won't, Rachel Reeves laughed about it when asked (how fucking insulting), most posters here don't seem to give a damn, Mumsnet posted fake concern on the thread then when asked if they'd campaign on the issue didn't reply. So yeah, I think you're right that we'll just be milked until there's nothing left and we lose our home and go bankrupt. Great outcome for my children and for other people wanting our tax money...

I'm sorry you are in a similar situation. I can't really cope for much longer and was hoping the budget might bring change but they've actually made it even worse.

I think you will find you started dishing it out first! You went on to tagged MY post.

You have had your opinion. Started a new opinion again underneath of your OWN post.

Now your saying I have a problem with you personally. Why would I? I don't know you from Adam. I never attacked your post. You've defo picked up the wrong e d of the stick.

You indirectly posted about me did you not? Chuffing cheek of you 🤣

You were the one who posted to me that I am "self righteous".

I've no idea what this rant means or is attempting to refer to. And frankly do not care because it doesn't seem relevant to the thread and more just some attempt to start an argument with more personal attacks so please desist and don't tag me anymore.

@ScruffyGiraffes Sorry you're getting such a hard time from the hard of thinking. It's probably worthwhile reposting the link on marginal tax rates every page or so so people can see what the effect actually is:

www.taxpolicy.org.uk/2022/10/04/marginal/

To be fair, there’s more to it than that that’s superfluous to the point being discussed here.
in any case, I’d argue she’s gone fairly far already given she earns £100k per year for a 4 day week with plenty of flexibility in a job she loves.

This is Britain and we are in a race to the bottom. How dare you be happy OP?

@Feraldogmum

Ah, unfortunately the level of financial ignorance in this country is such that most people think that the
taxes they pay more than cover the costs of the state provided services they use (eg NHS, schools, benefits) personally. So they think it’s no problem if higher earners either down tools and retire, or move elsewhere where taxes are less punitive. Ignorant folks say “good riddance” when warned of these consequences - completely oblivious to the fact that higher earners are literally paying for the services everyone else uses. Eg highly paid foreign workers who pay lots of tax here and often send their kids to private schools (thus not taking up state school places and subsidising everyone that does). If you tax them and their school fees until the pips squeak they will simply go elsewhere and take their tax payments with them, meaning even less available to be spent on everyone else….

I don’t think it’s unreasonable if
reducing hours and working opposite shifts means you can look after your children on your days off and the money you save in childcare is more than the loss of earnings…
also it’s great raising your kids yourself, I went part time after DD arrived… I wasn’t prepared to work full time just to pay someone else to look after her.

Anyone who is so financially illiterate they struggle to feed their children or heat their home on £100k, clearly aren’t earning £100k.

She might have gone far, but the reasoning for dropping to 4 days purely to pay less tax, despite apparently really wanting to work 5 days isn't very sound. In the long run it won't be better for her career or earnings. And not surprised there's 'more to it' than mentioned here otherwise it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

It probably depends on the career/company - in my current company it's career suicide but in others not so much

I think the blocks of parental leave would be less detrimental here actually as work is quite project based so with good planning it could be done with limited impact, just like holidays.

There is a massive issue here of people thinking if they pay £2k a year tax they are paying their way and the OPs too. When the reality is high rate tax payers pay for so much. The fact people do not understand what being a net contributor or tax cliffs too is worrying. Just envy and self righteousness and fiscal illiteracy.

If you want to live in a high trust society where people do not resent paying tax for the people in society who are worse off, constantly demonising people who warn well will not create a strong social contract. People who pay 60k tax a year being told they should not use the nhs or schools is completely bat shit. Also saying people should not have money to spend on things like house extensions etc. It is as of people don’t understand that if you tax anyone with spare money until they are skint as everyone else it won’t have an effect. People having money is good for the economy, that’s how economics works. If you think people should work to give money to the tax man and have nothing for themselves and not use public service you are going to see a country where anyone who can leave, will leave. And the country will be poorer for it.

If you think people should work to give money to the tax man and have nothing for themselves and not use public service you are going to see a country where anyone who can leave, will leave. And the country will be poorer for it.

Yep.

And the people who wanted them to go will be too. They won’t get the services they need as the tax funds will leave with the people they dislike.

I think the key is to reduce your hours if you actually want to / because you will enjoy spending that extra time with family or doing whatever / because you find it useful. And recognise you are lucky to be able to do that.

And then own that decision.

Rather than making out you're the victim of some awful tax / benefits system which means you couldn't possibly justify working more even though you apparently desperately want to.

I feel like it's a bit like a low earner being resentful that homeless people are being given free sandwiches, and annoyed they earn too much to qualify.

In terms of high earning single parents, it kind of makes sense that running a household on your own is going to be financially less advantageous than sharing with a partner, and that not really the governments fault?

I personally find being able to live on my own amazing (rather than sharing the house with my ex at least), so am happy to pay a bit extra for that privilege to not have to share the space.

Obviously don't disagree that the govt should help out single parents at the lower end of the pay spectrum. But if you're earning enough to care for yourself and your kids, then living on your own without sharing the house is a lifestyle choice imo!

100%

Between us we pay over 100k in tax EVERY YEAR, sometime more

If we work harder for a pay rise, we are in a situation where we are actually left with an effective pay cut of thousands. As if anyone in their right mind on here would do that, along with the sacrifices it entails- more stress, less family time, costs of working (commute etc)

Some of the comments on here suggest people are delighted with this situation and we are getting what we deserved for being "greedy". Its absolutely batshit. The way this attitude is pervading since covid in the UK is making abroad look more and more attractive. Lots of colleagues planning to go perhaps we avoid this tax trap and follow them.

Feel free to down tools and move to a country where you can getaway with paying less tax. I think for most people the reason they stay in the UK is because they like it here, or have family here, and wouldn't consider relocating purely for tax purposes.

I'd much rather live in a country that supports the less well off personally anyway than somewhere that refuses to tax rich people to help pay for public services..

The scale is very different though. A sandwich is maybe 1/3 - 1/2 an hour's earnings at minimum wage. They would be unlikely to be able to be overall better off by reducing their income to get the free sandwich. This family will have more in their pocket by working less.

But there are other equally stupid hard thresholds e.g. free school meals. And I think people should grumble about those too, and I would not criticise a parent who was just over the earnings threshold for FSM for dropping their hours to qualify if it would leave them overall better off.

I don't think it's unreasonable to not choose to actively make your family poorer regardless of where you sit on the income spectrum. Within the bounds of legality of course!

@Bucketheadbucketbum went off this thread last night and looked at the visa situation for other countries. If you’re both high earners there literally no reason to kill yourself full time just to pay tax.

Pay less tax and have other people pay for their childcare. HTH.

@usernamealreadytaken The op and her husband pay 100k tax a year. I doubt anyone is paying for anything for them. How much tax are you paying a year?

In terms of high earning single parents, it kind of makes sense that running a household on your own is going to be financially less advantageous than sharing with a partner,

Of course it does and it’s ridiculous to expect the tax system to fix it. A system based on household income would be impossible to administer.

The fight for women to gain financial independence was long and hard, tying women’s income to their partner’s in that way would be a hugely retrograde step. One of the reasons financially independent women avoid marriage is to avoid giving up that independence.