Not an ordinary working person if you earn over 45k

[TesChique]

Disincentivising anyone to strive to earn over 45k a year is a bizarre strategy for growth i feel

Aibu?

It’s pisses me off,dh earns well but like the majority of people our food bill has doubled,mortgage doubled,there is nothing left at the end of the month,we earn to much for help!god forbid people want to better themselves!I am beginning to think they want everyone to have the same amount of money!

Trouble is, any suggestion of cutting benefits gets people out on the streets, protesting in a fit of rage. Tax payers just suck it up and keep on paying more. They don’t have time to protest because they are too busy at work!

In Scotland teachers a couple of years post qualification will earn £45k, social workers can earn close to to that in their first year. But then the higher tax band starts at £43k, so we’re already penalised over the rest of the uk.

There's a difference between high income and high wealth. The former doesn't equal the latter. I wish the government would correctly define what 'rich' means before attempting to tax the rich.

It’s not a race to the bottom. No, £30k isn’t huge but it’s enough without dependants. Presumably if you’re a relatively new graduate you still have plenty of earning potential to go

The median UK salary for full time workers is just shy of £38k. You say that most people in your circle earn over that, that by no means accounts to most people generally.

Services are on their knees. Everyone apart from those on low incomes needs to be paying more tax IMO. But it should be done fairly and those who are actually rich should bear more of the burden.

45k with a great public sector pension is quite different from 45k with bare minimum private sector pension, Typical Labour.

Yes, I was behind a bus advertising 32k the other day, that's more than a teacher earns in their ect years. To get to £45k as a teacher (outside of London) you'd have to be an M6, which is the highest without having a leadership role. £45k isn't a huge salary, for such a lot of experience.
I really do think they need to start getting a bit more imaginative with how we solve our problems. There are a lot of people sitting on a lot of money, but it isn't necessarily from taxable income.

The basic rate tax band goes up to £50,270 so where has £45k come from?

Yep. My husband is trying to work out what it is he is doing for 10-12hours a day, often with holidays and days off interrupted, and on call for the remainder plus weekends … if it is NOT working? He’s fairly sure that ‘being employed’ means he is working, however you want to parse language.

“The basic rate tax band goes up to £50,270 so where has £45k come from?”

At the moment… remember the 45% tax band was substantially lowered to 125k quite recently. Nothing is off the table. I thought they would just not increase the 40% threshold, but it is conceivable they might actually lower it (purely speculative).

I explained to my son in law this morning that as a teacher on more than 46k he is no longer a working person and is now one of the elite rich

he took it well

Lol, I made more than this and quit to be a SAHM because after tax, student loans and commuting costs it didn't cover paying for childcare for 2 children.

Why is anyone surprised?

"Tax the rich" ALWAYS ends up with people who aren't rich, footing the bill.

This is why socialism never works, because "rich" and "privilege" always just ends meaning having anything slightly more than the bare minimum.

Jesus Christ, try telling that to people like myself who earn less than 45k, have multiple children to support and no hope of even GETTING a mortgage.

Treading water… give me strength.

Just had a google, £39k is median gross annual salary for full time employees in the UK in 2025. So £45k is only a smidge above average and I’d imagine below average in London and SE England. I really want Labour to do well, i want them to tackle inequality, but this is crazy.

Less than 17% of people are in the 40% tax band, which starts at £50,270. That band is frozen until 2028 at which point it might rise or it might not. It won’t go down ever.

People earning above this may be asked to pay more. If you are in the top 17% of earners then yes you might be the target. You are easier one than the PIP recipients they recently had to u turn on.

If they hadn't made stupid promises about not taxing 'working people', they wouldn't now have to be trying to change the definition of those people! I just fail to see how anyone can look at any repurposing of the phrase 'working people' and support that move. If you're working to earn money, you're a working person, end of! And very few people are independently wealthy, I'd imagine.

Abso-fucking-lutely

Nobody forced you to have multiple children though? Different people have different priorities - I purposefully had an only child and was therefore able to provide us with a more comfortable life. I have no idea how I’d manage if I had more than DD! Certainly wouldn’t be a homeowner.

But Labour are saying that 46K is the cut off for not being a "working person".....

Exactly

I am single and I am child-free. Both of those things are a choice. Both of them have tax implications. If course they do. That doesn't make it the government's fault that my salary doesn't go as far as it would were I in a relationship, nor does it make it the government's fault that I am able to save each month because I don't need to pay for childcare or dependents.

If we were to talk about implications on unpaid carers for disabled parents or children, these arguments would feel reasonable.

Can someone post a link to any government proposal to take more money from people earning over £45k.