to think 51% tax is ridiculous, and already to be planning to move to Asia

[hedgiemum]

Namechanged. Married to someone who earns well in excess of £150,000 a year, though neither does he earn 7 figures.
He is still quite young in his career - a recent promotion to a senior position, but has not been earning this kind of money of long, so we still have a mortgage and haven't saved large amounts (what we have saved is through his pension which is no longer going to be particularly worth doing.)

He phoned me a minute after end of budget to say he'd watched it with his boss whose reaction was that he would move the company (not a bank, but in finance) to Asia. Probably Hong Kong - 12% tax rather than the 51% we'd be paying here.

Seems like a kneejerk reaction, and clearly we can afford to pay more, but boss doesn't feel he'll get good productivity from staff if they are getting to take home less than half their income. Plus it decreases ever-present risk of them being headhunted by companies in lower-tax economies.

AIBU to be PLEASED (I used to hate tax exiles.) Partly because it just does not seem fair. Partly because this country has been run so badly by New Labour of whom we had such high expectations, and the medical care we have received has been shite, the local schools are shite, the roads are insanely busy and yet is costs so much to live here.

fircone- I always laugh when I see very high earners saying they will "lose half their income" to tax because it is simply not true. Most of the country lives on income well below the £40,000 that high earners consider to be small change and not worth taking into account in their calculations. The calculations have been broken down ad nauseam on this thread. There is no way that someone earning £200,000 a year is in any way worse off than someone earning £20,000 a year. A little perspective would be nice.

I bet the MP's when they get their salaries instead of expenses vote to get paid £149,999 though

IABU, imho

That exact thought occurred to me earlier, Sorrento!

"I don't think you can blame people for not wanting to pay more tax. Do any of us really and honestly when times are hard? "

No-one wants to pay tax but at least people can acknowlege it's necessary, and actually when times are hard you should be grateful you are in the position to pay tax at all. I don't think it is the job of the government to make it "fair", it's the job of the gov't to ensure that the haves help out the have nots.

As I said earlier I think the 50% tax rate should be applied much lower.

Are you franca? Are you being very unreasonable or just a little bit?

What I was trying to say is that it would take most people aeons to earn £500k, or even £200k, or less etc etc, and be taxed whilst doing it. Fair enough.

But imo it's ludicrous and to be able to cop a big inheritance and get that tax free.

That's the thing - PWC etc will be sitting around now hatching Tax Avoidance Schemes.

But at the same time HMRC have an Anti-Avoidance Group. The key issue here is changing the economics of avoidance to make it less attractive so that the expected costs, difficulties and risks of attempting avoidance outweigh the expected potential gains.

sorrento, I can understand what you are saying, but ti is only recently that we were able to afford the help for dd1.

I come from a very poor background, and any help she has had up unti lthis last year was due to my research and intervention.

I would be happy if she got any of the hel she is entitled to, by the way, but she does not have a suitable school place (not a good school place, but a suitable one) we have recently had to move across the country to find a placement for her (which we self fund). And yes, we are lucky that we could move, but I thought an education was a basic right for all in this country?

dd2's problems are quite complex - she appears to have a very rare disorder. the docotrs think I am neurotic, and dismiss her, frankly weird, test results as she does not fit the pattern they are expecting. They are not adding in the fact that ehr sister is autistic, as that is a real political hot potato.

I am very thankful that we are able to help ou girls ourselves, but the fact that we can does not make it right that we should have to. And it makes it even worse that there are other families in the same situation, not as fortunate as us, whose looks are equally being overlooked.

If any of this tax rise were to go to addressign soem of the many issues my family faces, I would be very happy, but it will not. in fact, the services dd1 needs are likely to be cut.

Fircone, how much tax would you like to see on inheritance?

I'm happy to pay tax. I consciously don't over-claim on tax-free expenses (I'm self-employed). I know a few accountants who say to me 'Give me a look at your accounts - I'll make sure you never have to pay any tax'. I think they're wankers, tbh.

Anyone who objects to paying tax should fuck off to Somalia or some other failed state.

And I agree with earlier poster who said that many self-employed people are big tax evaders (oh, sorry, avoiders ).

I think the screws should be tightened on them.

YABU!

Well you can tighten the screws on self-employed many of the legislation is there the gov't just don't enforce it.

What we need to ask in this whole debate is what sort of a country we want to be living in. I cannot believe that even the greediest, nastiest fuckers would want to be tripping over the corpses of starved children in the streets of Britain, as is the case in many parts of the world. I can't believe that even they believe it desirable for sewage to be chucked into open drains or rivers. I can't believe they would think it desirable for the population to be largely illiterate; even from an economic point of view this would be unviable.

From one who knew: "A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members." ~ Mahatma Ghandi

Italy, where I live now, is a country of tax evaders. Usually high earners are those who manage to pay very little taxes here.

"it's also worth bearing in mind that the more tax you pay, the less you are entitled to... "

what does this mean?

what are you not entitled to if you earn loads. is it things like benefits? Those things for people who are struggling?

Inheritance tax? Taxed the same as income. You inherit £100k, you pay 40% £151K, 51%.

'entitled to' I mean? What does 'entitled' me?

To furnish with a right or claim to something ?

mean - I mean

Silvercross I could say the same myself, my DD walks funny because the podiatrist waiting list was 2 years and we had to wait for a diagnosis before we could go private.

I intend to move my girls to private school the moment DH gets a new job as I do not believe in the state system anymore for anything but I'm lucky enough to have that choice and don't resent paying for the poor buggers who are stuck with it.

duchesse - what hysterical bollocks!
We aren't a third world nation so the scene you describe would never happen - regardless of attitudes.

'poor buggers who are stuck with it'

Exactly Franco If you drive through Naples you'll see sights you cannot believe are allowed to happen in Europe and 2009

Inheritance tax is taken from the estate before distribution, and calculated on the total value of the estate, not on what one person inherits.

I have four siblings - so we'd each get one fifth of anything after tax had been paid.

I'm not moaning about this, but if tax was paid on say, 500k at 40% then I'd inherit (dashes to calculator) about 60k. 500k is a lot of money, enough to set you up for life. 60k is also a lot of money but hardly places you in fat cat territory.

I have no issue paying IHT but it's not as simple as 'you inherit 100k' - many people would inherit one share of a larger amount that had already been taxed.