High earner query - basically over 100% tax on xmas bonus.

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My employer has decided to be very generous and give everyone £5k cash bonus this Xmas (in previous years they have given £2k). I have adjusted my salary sacrifice pension contributions so I earn approximately £96k gross. I cannot amend this until April as per my employer policy. I thought there was enough buffer for bonus and benefits.

problem is if I earn over £100k (I have 2 kids aged 1 and 3 in full time nursery)

• I will pay 60 % tax on my bonus
• i will become ineligible for tax free childcare - worth £333 per month,£4k per year
• I will become ineligible for 30 hours childcare for DD1 - worth £600 per month, £7k per year.

basically because I’m getting this bonus we’ll be much worse off financially - is there anything I can do to avoid this?

And that was your choice. Thankfully the world has now moved on and mothers can have successful careers and not be forced to depend on having a well off partner. Well done to OP for carving out such a great career and providing a goid life for her family.

Why am I an idiot for wanting to be with my kids ?
I saw every moment of their development not a nursery
I was at every school play
I volunteered at play school , nursery and school event
I took my kids to and from school
my parents did the same as me
not let their kids run riot round the streets and have designer clothing

Then the op is, its only due to the bonus that the op is asking for advice ?

Although I disagree in entirely with blanc I don’t see the evidence that the OP and people like her are funding Blancs lifestyle

i have every sympathy with the OP, thats a massive amount to lose because you’ve just gone into a higher tax band. Hopefully they have received some good advice

Also to all the comments that are nasty..... why should someone earning in a bracket pay 60% when the people warning MORE pay less.

It's a shitty complex tax repercussion that is not widely discussed

If you paid more tax % earning 30k than Op then I'm sure they and we would deem it unfair.

You’re an idiot for coming to this thread on your nigh horse telling others how they’ve to live their lives and not taking into account what their initial question was.

your last sentence is also quite disrespectful. Do you think only high earners kids are the ones causing trouble?

I didn’t get any benefits help
my husband earnt decent money
we had a mortgage
I chose to stay home and parent my kids

These threads always go the same way...

Rich mumsnetters: We're on £100k pa and money is so tight, oh what can we do?
Everyone else: are you serious?
Rich mumsnetters: I don't think you understand, we live in the SE.
Everyone else: 🙄

It's not jealousy. How do you think everyone else copes? Genuinely

Any one can come on here and say what they think !
what’s the point in having kids of you aren’t gonna look after them !
That’s why so many kids are running riot

Mumsnet baffles me.

Anyone over £50k appears, judging by mumsnet views, to be the devil incarnate and loaded. I’m sure lots of posters here do struggle but it’s not a race to the bottom. Those preaching should go compare themselves to the absolute poverty in Africa and stop whining.

Most of the previous posters should be ashamed of themselves. Regardless of what OP earns she’s a working mother with two kids who isn’t willing to sacrifice her career. Good on her. We need more women like her to be the bread winners.

Apart from the op isn’t asking about how can she do cuts but how can she avoid losing 8k. A bit of a difference.

op; I’m getting a bonus but means losing some cash
mns: how dare you complain. Keep paying taxes

Agree with easter

i very much doubt blanc that if your husband had come home and said he was going to lose 6 k of his annual wage you’d have been all chill about it

My children don’t run riot round the street. I have been to every school performance, volunteered at many school events AND managed to have a successful career. In fact, I’m leaving the house soon to help at the Christmas fayre. If you’re not up to doing both that’s your problem but don’t criticise others who can.

Could you ask for it in gift vouchers?

I think you are allowed up to a certain amount in vouchers every year.

I think it was due to their initial comment about surviving on £104 a week, the info about living off their partners earnings came later

Again. you’re making accusations without having proof of the background of those kids causing problems

Why am I an idiot for wanting to be with my kids ?

Thats not why your are an idiot but there’s no point trying to explain…

That's a perfect solution

Gotcha newlifter

thank you for clarifying that

not let their kids run riot round the streets and have designer clothing

@Blanc4 writing stuff like the above makes you an idiot. Exactly how old are you?

I get that, but she lost me when she listed all her outgoings and said she doesn't have any money left at the end of the month.

This poster taxes (a huge sum) pays for all the services society needs so stop with the jealous sniping.

Of course not, and neither would any of the other people telling OP how cheeky she is or whatever. Neither would the people on the threads where posters at the other end of the income spectrum are facing bottleneck situations, often related to the interplay between income and benefits.

The UK has a ridiculous system with numerous bottlenecks. That's a bad thing. Unfortunately, whenever anyone makes this point and discusses their experience of it, there's then a pile on because so many posters think the question is actually about whether they happen to sympathise with the poster in question.

Oh right, just bitchy, competitive and unhelpful, as this tax rate doesn’t affect you. (Read the room).

Regardless of who earns what, is there a requirement that anyone over a certain amount cannot ask for advice? Chances are, money is relative to the area with costs, etc. Surely, the point of this site is to help people when they want advice ?