Anyone else lost a bit of ambition now they’ve been taxed to the brink?

[Peasontoastt]

I used to be extremely ambitious and was really eager to reach some sort of financial security. As a consequence, I’m in what’s considered a highly paid career, I work hard and it took me many years to train.

Just as I paid off my student loan (which took many years), I then had a baby and returned to work to be stuck with the childcare dilemma. I struggled through that phase and have come out the other side but being taxed so much, no child benefit, still paying for nursery even though dd has ‘free’ hours now. It’s likely that savings are going to be bashed next, so what’s the point in even putting anything aside when there’s likely going to be a 4K cap on ISAs.

I used to feel so ambitious and of course I know money isn’t everything, not by a long shot. But having worked my way up the ladder and with huge responsibilities only to feel penalised financially for doing so…what is the point? Yes I have more financial security than someone claiming benefits but equally, I am not being flippant when I say a few years of resting and being at home and being frugal is starting to seem so much more attractive. Has anyone else started feeling this way? I feel taken the piss out of by every financial angle!

Agree

Your halo is super shiny!

It is sad. I hope we can get back to a better place which attracts people instead of this.

ETA I mean generally

DH is the main breadwinner in the family and is still motivated to provide for our DC. But damn he hates seeing how much he gets taxed. It's truly horrible.

If you're physically healthy, get a job. That's not enough, get a second job. Do Uber/Uber eats, have a weekend job. Do tutoring, do whatever. Don't rely on the state.

I guess from the thread Taylor has it right when she said, "Haters are gonna Hate, Hate Hate, Hate, and Takers are gonna, Take, Take Take, Take"

So we increase the national living wage further.

At the same time we reduce corp tax, remove employer NIC, set the VAT threshold to £250,000, allow business to let staff go who are crap at the job (up to 2 years) and generally reduce the bureaucracy around employment. We incentivise employers.

We could really do with a property price crash too. Sure it would affect me, but it's for the greater good.

Fag packet economics above - no doubt full of holes. But when I was younger I could literally blag my way into any job and I could hop around like there was no tomorrow if I had wanted to. Reading all the threads lately, that no longer seems to be an option.

The path we currently follow is not working and the future is bleak.

Yes and that directly led to the "brain drain". Also property was affordable, the NHS broadly worked and people didn't worry about their pensions. I think it was nearer 50 years ago.

From Wikipedia: In 1974 the top tax rate on earned income was again raised, to 83%. With the investment income surcharge this raised the overall top rate on investment income to 98%, the highest permanent rate since the war. This applied to incomes over £20,000 (equivalent to £263,269 in 2023 terms).[3]In 1974, around 750,000 people paid the higher (but not necessarily the top) rate of income tax.

You can also use an online calculator and it gave me a similar figure.

It wasn’t actually in the 80s, it was the 70s, so your post was slightly inaccurate in that regard. Thatcher reduced the top rate in 1979 to 60% and kept reducing it thereafter.

Do you have a reason you don’t want to contribute, or see contributing as a negative?

Please don’t tell the OP to get over it, instead re read what she is saying and think it through. She doesn’t qualify for benefits or additional support. Now think about how the cost of living has affected your life and apply that to the OP.
she willl also be struggling financially. I live with someone but if I did not I would be struggling. As my earlier post indicated, due to tax, overtime is no longer worth it and neither is promotion, again due to TAXATION.
The OP is clearly a smart lady, if there was a means of getting over it do you not think she would spend her energy on that instead of posting here?

With the combination of loss of tax and benefits, a family with two young kids will now be facing a 100% rate on income between £100-145k ish.

Already causing a huge impact behaviourally, and for some reason the government has nothing to say on the matter.

The 62% rate (tax + NI) between £100-125k was already one of the highest rates on earth.

And yeah, this is written by someone who worked full time and when n her own had to live on chickpeas and tinned tomatoes, diluted milk with water and could only afford a bedroom in a shared flat, again due to TAXATION.
There is a clu, yes, and it’s membership is not denoted by the level of tax you pay

The government need to alter the tax bands to widen the number of people paying tax. The pool of net contributors is too small. It is unfair on us.

Lower earners should pay more tax but a big problem is housing which eats up a lot of income (across all income bands). It's a mess.

But surely the VAT is passed on to you customers/clients so you dont actually pay it yourself?

Presumably with more responsibility ces more fulfilment and freedom in your job too.

We pay very similar rates to the developed European countries.

Higher earners do but lower & middle don't. Plus you need to look at taxes as a whole & cost of living. The UK has very high housing costs & childcare costs which impacts how much tax people can pay.

I think that's what grates on people. If we were paying lots of tax but seeing decent healthcare, excellent schools, an effective police response etc it would feel OK. But what we have is a crumbling nhs, struggling schools and people knowing they can get away with low level crime as no resources to go after them.
4k council bill (2 months of my post tax salary) on a very average house, and we have to pay extra for our garden waste to be collected, on top of significant income tax bill, paying stamp duty for the 'privilege' of having somewhere to live, VAT on most things, it does feel never ending. I work part time as working full time doesn't earn me much more - which is madness.

If you tax low earners on income, they then don’t spend and as pointed out it’s a large % on lower income not paying very much income tax - if they stop spending then the economy grinds to a halt

@MikeRafone how come they tax lower and middle earners more in many other European countries?

Makes you less competitive if you have to start charging 20% extra.

I do less hours now. Reduce the stress and can be around for school runs and sorting house out. Clearly has an impact on salary and pension contributions. But have so much more balance, happier and a major one is we eat better as I am around to sort food. Might be something to consider.

Many threads with people stating they hate work/working. It's a general feeling as salaries in this country are low. Earners in the top 1% in the US vary state by state but even the lower ones dwarf what is considered 'top 1%' in the UK. The incentive to work to 'live the dream' is not really there. Is the dream acheivable here? Work places can be toxic/unwelcoming places. Welfare bill swells. Some just don't see the point of working for small amounts of money/respect/job satisfaction

Many business can't remain competitive by adding VAT so absorb and pay the VAT themselves when they register. Especially service based businesses with a low amount of vatable expenses. It's been discussed already. The idea that VAT is paid by the consumer is sometimes true, sometimes a total myth.

For consumers that do pay the VAT as an extra. It's also a tax that is not levied based on income. So someone earning £20K a year is charged the same amount of VAT on item X as someone earning £200K a year.

If wages were higher everything would cost more, and in real terms most people would be no better off. And thats not to say I don't think people deserve better wages, they definitely do.
But if we pay state employed staff better our taxes have to go up, and private businesses will have to charge more. This may then lead to people eating out etc less, businesses closing and staff loosing jobs. There isn't any easy solution.

How do you think things like schools and hospitals are paid for?