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.

Interesting thread - and most upsetting as I've spent time when I should be working reading through it...

Am still chuckling at the idea that £150K doesn't get you a standard of living in London - our combined full-time salaries are nowhere near that and we do ok. But, to goodnightmoon's horror, we live in the darkest reaches of South-East London - no clapham or balham but lewisham. Oh the humanity!

OP - YABU.

samsonara, if you're earning £160,000, you'd already have been 40% tax, so you're now paying 11% extra on that £10,000 which is over the new £150,000 threshold. Which is not insignificant, but equally is hardly losing an extra £5,000 extra as you imply. And even if you were right, how on earth can you say £5,000 isn't worth having? Ask someone on a low income that question, go on I dare you...

Those who say it's selfish to keep as much money as possible, you don't know how everyone's money is spent, privately some people actually fund schools and healthcare in third world countries, or other charitable worldwide and local projects, it's not so that their children can drive sport cars at 18! Some of the most generous people I know are high earners and also low very little, but they give willingly at different levels, eg one buys the big issue and a drink for the homeless with every spare few pound they have, one subsidises his fabulous apartments for people on low incomes. It's relative, you can't judge others based on what you would do if you were earning 150k, we are different, but if you work hard and have the extra earnings taken away as extra tax, it isn't a nice feeling.

I have tried to read the whole thread but I've got to go out - Can I just clarify that the OP thought that her hubby would pay 51% tax on his salary ? Therefore would end up with £75K ? And we wonder why we are in financial crisis ?

Tell you what - you tell your dh that he doesn't have to pay the higher rate of tax if he splits his job with dh who has two degrees and has been looking for work for nearly a year because I would LOVE to be in a position to complain about paying any tax atm.

sorry I am not claiming to get the maths right, ofcourse on a low income 5k is a tremendous help ie it's 25% of your income if you earn 20k, but if you are on a high income with higher expenditure that 5k is not useable in the same way as 5k would be eg, your mortgage could be 5k a month on your million pounds plus house, or for paying for your car that you purchased. I'm not arguing just illustrating why I think it's not being unreasonable to moan.

Where do these random 1% come from? I though it was 40% over a certain amount (not 41% as the OP stated earlier), and then now 50% over £150,000?

Not that it really matters, it just appeals to my sense of pedantry!

I mean paying for a car in intallments, of a few grand each month, not for the car itself

Who's judging? I think most on here are simply talking about what makes sense, ie those who earn more should pay more taxes - they can afford it. Sorry samsonara, but what you're saying's a few examples, and yes we all know there are nice rich people, but you can't run an economy in the hope that people will put something back. Of course some do, but if the taxation system tries to even it so it's fair for all surely that's a good thing.

samsonara - so wealthy people pay for those who need it via charities rather than the via the government. All well and good, but you see there is a moral element to this, the payer gets to decide who is deserving enough of his hard-earned. Which is how the Victorians worked I beleive. Only the deserving poor get helped and sod those with problems who are less appealing.

Give to charity by all means, but pay taxes first.

5k is not useable. Oh you have to be joking..

I wonder whether OP thought it would be fairer if the standard rate of tax was put up, so that we all had to pay more, rather than just increase the rate for those who most would consider to be very wealthy?
I suspect we all will be paying higher rates of tax after the next election anyway.
And ... if the OP's DH's boss was so brilliant and worth an enormous salary - why didn't he understand the principles of progressive taxation (i.e. that you only paid the higher rate on sums earned above a certain amount, not on the whole sum)?

Sorry I have to laugh at that 5k useable comment, ofcourse it's useable, but I'm talking relatively, if you earn alot, 5k is a weekend break in a five star hotel, not a few months salary, so if you are the type of person who can do that you aren't going to get excited by saving 5k are you, when you probably spend 20k on holidays. Sorry I have probably messed up commenting on here as I've tried to put a different view point across, but not done it badly.

As we are Mumsnet, might it also be worth pointing out that the European countries which have scored best in the recent survey of child wellbeing are (yet again) the countries with the least social inequalities? Not the countries whose governments depend on wealthy philanthropists.

Personally, I am wealthy enough (though earning rather less than the average wage) to keep my children well clothed and fed. But that might not do me a lot of good if poverty-related disease starts increasing.

My FIL came from a very comfortable middle-class background. Didn't stop him from being crippled for life in his teens by TB.

For a large % of people atm 5k could be keeping their house feeding their kids giving them time to seek alternative employment.To call it unusable is insulting esp atm.

Anyone who thinks 5k isn't worth bothering with should be taxed at a flat rate of 95 per cent.

Riven, It's facts, people can and do that at the same time there are people living in scummy flats with mould and mice with their children. The gap as cory mentioned is one of the problems that needs addressing in this country, giving benefits to the poorer and taxing the richer is just not a perfect solution. If the rich go off and take their spending money elsewhere, it doesn't solve the long term problem of a healthy economy. I'm not saying I have answers, it's just that I don't see how getting pised off with those who earn more is a solution, they are already more taxes as required and that hasn't exactly worked for us here, it's how the taxes get used that needs addressing.

There was a 90% tax once wasn't there?

DH earns a lot but 5k is not a weekend break in a 5 star hotel - it is our food budget for the entire year!

I am so looking forward - and it will happen because no global economy is going to escape the global recession - to all the tax havens being shut down so that we no longer have to listen to the whinging sense of apparent threat and over-entitlement of the rich that 'oooh boo hiss I'll just take my money elsewhere'.

I do hope soon you will all have nowhere to go so that you will have to grow up and face reality that no person is an island. Proper progressive taxation and social policy is not robbing you of your hard-earned, nor is it communism. It is just the way reasonable, modern societies work. Pay your way and stop moaning.

Kerry - how is paying 50% tax on anything you earn over 150k 'most' of anyone's income?