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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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

805 replies

hedgiemum · 22/04/2009 14:33

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.

OP posts:
sarah293 · 22/04/2009 15:35

This reply has been deleted

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BitOfFun · 22/04/2009 15:36

Hedgie, just for you!

expatinscotland · 22/04/2009 15:36

'but hate the fact that we will do so now to fill a big black hole caused by greed, incompetence and over-promotion. '

Then maybe it'll catch out a lot of those who got us in this mess in the first place and get them to indirectly pay for their cock ups.

LibrasJusticeLeagueofBiscuits · 22/04/2009 15:36

This word fair is very annoying. There are lots of things in life that aren't fair, this is one of the things that might not be fair but is right.

(I am a higher tax rate payer btw)

slug · 22/04/2009 15:37

Nancy66, could you add teachers to the list of 'hard working' public sector employees please?

And while you're at it, remember it's all very well and good to claim that it's possible to opt out of the public system if you are wealthy, but the teachers, doctors and nurses who work in the private system were all trained using tax payers money.

ClaireDeLoon · 22/04/2009 15:37

If not this system cornflakegirl then what system do you suggest?

LibrasJusticeLeagueofBiscuits · 22/04/2009 15:37

Riven, they understood it they just ignored it as they were too busy lighting cigars with a £50 note.

cornflakegirl · 22/04/2009 15:39

Claire - I said that the current system is probably the most pragmatic solution. I just don't think the OP is entirely unreasonable to think that it's unfair.

BouncingTurtle · 22/04/2009 15:39

I did intend to read all of this thread but I stopped at KingCanute's
'51% tax is insane and, in some ways, a breach of a persons rights.'

Where does 'rights' come into this? When someone starts banging on about people's rights that usually a precursor to other's losing theirs.

No-one has the 'right' to a six figure income. If you happen to have one, then good on you!
But don't bang on about your rights.

Since DH and I have combined income of something like around a quarter of your income, you'll not get any sympathy from me. And there are other MNs who have to managed on even less that DH and I get

Mumsfruitandnut · 22/04/2009 15:40

Expat, I'd like to think they had lost their jobs already ...

BigBellasBeerBelly · 22/04/2009 15:40

Maybe if all the super rich go away and leave us mere mortals to it we will end up with a more balanced and less selfish society? One which isn't based entirely on money and rampant consumerism...

just a thought.

BTW I never begrudge my taxes, i have been a higher rate person in the past and was always baffled when every time the payslips came round my colleagues would start ranting on "why do i have to pay so much tax blah blah" like animated versions of the daily mail.

If 51% is what it takes then that's what it takes. You can see what it's all being spent on every time you step outside your front door...

Oh yes and the small matter of bailing out the banks...

Oh so hold on, the people who got us into this mess, and accepted billions of govt money to stay in their jobs, keep their companies afloat and keep receiving their bonuses, are now going to leave the country so they don't have to give it back?

Litchick · 22/04/2009 15:40

It is just punishing those who are seen as having caused the finacial mess - ooh look how we chastise those fat cats. Yet everyione with any brain cells knows the problem was with a few bankers and very specific ones at that. Not all those other people who happen to earn a good wage but had absolutely feck all to do with it.
I wouldn't care if it will raise enough revenue to make an appreciable difference to the debt but it won't!!!

expatinscotland · 22/04/2009 15:41

hedgie, for you

expatinscotland · 22/04/2009 15:42

'Expat, I'd like to think they had lost their jobs already ... '

I doubt it. Or, if they have, they got a golden handshake.

LibrasJusticeLeagueofBiscuits · 22/04/2009 15:42

"punishing? penalise?"

It's TAX, you are not having your fingers cut off you are helping to pay for the management of this country.

ChippyMinton · 22/04/2009 15:43

Isn't the new rate 50%, rather than 51% or I am being thick?

cornflakegirl · 22/04/2009 15:44

As an aside, on the 51% thing - I'm assuming that the OP (or her DH) means 50% tax plus 1% national insurance.

MollieO · 22/04/2009 15:44

Having lived in the US for a while I think despite all its faults the UK has a lot to be grateful for, particularly having the benefit of the NHS (which I'd never actually used before I had ds and now think is absolutely fantastic).

I am highly educated and work bloody hard but I'm not in finance so the rewards are less. I don't think I am 'better' than those that earn less than me. Some of the thickest people I know earn huge amounts of money.

cornflakegirl · 22/04/2009 15:44

hah - xposted with Chippy and neatly answered her question!

Litchick · 22/04/2009 15:44

bella - i'm a writer so what can I posibly have contributed to the banking crisis? Not everyone who earns good money works for Lloyds or Northen Rock!!!
Bloody hell, my best mate is a surgeon and she earns that.

OrmIrian · 22/04/2009 15:45

D'ya know what? Both DH and I have degrees. We have both always worked despite various problems that have beset us over the years. We've always paid our way and our taxes, and never begrudged a penny. We have always made ends meet but never been well off.

In September DH will finally start his first post as a teacher. And our income will be just over £50k. And I am stunned at that figure. It seems huge to me. We will be able to have an improved standard of living and put some money aside for proper savings for the first time ever.

I don't suppose for a moment your DH works 3 times harder than the both of us put together. And I'm not whingeing about the taxes we pay.

GColdtimer · 22/04/2009 15:45

Lol at the naive assumption that higher earners worked harder at school and are move driven and intelligent people and therefore deserve their high salaries. What a simplistic way to look at life.

As others have said, it was the high earners who got us into much of this mess in the first place.

Ledodgy · 22/04/2009 15:46

Rocksocks,'I'm not disputing that lots of people work such hours. What I am saying is that they have chosen whether to be a teacher/social worker/doctor and presumably know that they aren't going to receive the kind of money that they would earn if they were working in the City.'

On the same vein when city workers etc go into their careers they know they are working towards earnings in the high tax bracket and should also have been aware that this is subject to change.

OrmIrian · 22/04/2009 15:46

And BTW I'm 44 and DH is 47.

Litchick · 22/04/2009 15:48

two falls - ( bangs head against wall ) not all high rate tax payers are bankers!!!! Lots of us are in no way involved in that world.