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.

And if the hubbie of the OP is such a finance whizz he should realise that the Asian economy is on it's way to hell in a hand basket!

Litchick - that wasn't the point I was making. No, not all higher rate tax payers are bankers, of course not. However, the people who were responsible for the mess (banks, hedge fund managers, and even media editors to a certain extent) are highly likely to be higher rate tax payers. Thus, debunking the argument that higher rate tax payers are more intelligent and hard working and therefore more deserving.

Sorry for rough calculation, but it's to show that just because you earn over £150,000 it doesn't mean that you automatically lose half your income. Tax is not structured that way. And sorry, that was meant to be about £53,000 in tax.

In fact you'd pay somewhere between 70 and 80k in tax - leaving a nett of 120k odd - £10k a month seems a reasonable living wage, seeing as how you don't have to pay for schooling, medical care etc...

dreadpirate - I don't have problem with economic migrants. I like living amongst people of all different religions, nationalities, races, whether here or abroad.

Not going to go into exact earnings, anyway they fluctuate. But DH is NOT a banker and didn't help cause this mess, his area is a different one. He does work incredibly hard and long hours; I didn't mention this in original post as I AGREE that many, many people work incredibly hard, and earn a lot less.

Your calcs much less rough than mine bleh!

BigBelly (sorry, decided to shorten my name). What I mean is: people should learn to live with the choices that they make in life. At the end of the day, if you're complaining that someone who is as intelligent as you is earning more, then maybe you should go into their field? If you're complaining about a tax increase, it's something that happens, deal with it. There's too much whinging and not taking enough responsibility for your own actions.

Mind the door doesn't hit you on the ass on the way out.

I cannot believe people complain about this - as if there is something intrinsically wonderful/skilled/ hard working about earning £150k a year.

There isn't - they do not work harder than many other people. They are not more skilled.

First husband £100k plus - accountant - 9-5 every day, crap degree from local poly.

He did not intrinsically deserve to earn more than a hard working nurse.

I wouldn't mind this tax increase if I was getting somehting back for it.

My dd1 does not get adequate schooling (she is autistic), and the part time place she does have, we currently fund as the LEA are refusing to.

She has health issues that are unaddressed (and due to the government stance on gut issues/autism they will continue to be ignored) so she is in regular discomfort, btu hey, she can't complain abut it, so why should anyone worry?

dd2 seems to have a very odd mitochondrial profile, but no-one (nhs) is interested in finding out why, or what it might mean for her, and so yet again we are funding the investigations.

my stepdaughter (Aspergers) never had the help she needed at school, and so we have employed private tutotrs to get her where she is now (off to university) - her school thought she should drop out at 16 as she "wouldn't amount to anything"

i do realise how ver lucky we are that we can afford to do all these things for our children, but really, isn't basic health and education what these taxes are supposed to be paying for? And yet we see none of it...

"I agree that the 50% tax band will be irrelevant because high earners will employ taxation specialists to avoid it"

This myth seems to be constantly peddled on mumsnet and it is rubbish. Most people are paid through PAYE no way of avoiding tax until you are earning millions or have complicated tax affairs.

I am hoping they have to call an election before this comes in as I am pretty certain they will lose. The way I see it is that I should get at 50% of what I earn. When the balance tips over 50% to the goverment (which in reality it does once you look at indirect taxes, stamp duty, NI and the removal of personal allowance for higher rate tax payers,IHT, tax on savings etc etc) it makes you not want to bother.

Did anyone else notice poor Gordon falling asleep? Poor didums!

"I struggle to survive on what I earn so please do feel free to p*ss off abroad on your high salary but please don't come crying back to the UK if you need NHS healthcare."
Errr, I would guess that someone who is earning in excess of £150k now has contributed more than their fair share to the NHS over the years
Leaving for a few years for whatever reason does not exclude anyone from NHS treatment

Less undreasonable then hedgiemum. I asked because friends of MIL's moved to France because they didn't approve of immigration into this country, and thought taxes were too high. I asked if they considered themselves economic or political migrants, but it didn't go down too well

You know what Hedgiemum - I used to think like you but now when I start thinking like that I think of the threads I have read on mumsnet where people can't afford to put food on the table and I think of my life and just how bloody lucky I am.

And really if you have that much money - how about going back to school - maybe there you can be taught about the taxation system because your first post makes you look incredibly thick!

bleh - you should be glad that most of the people aren't governed by your logic.

If it weren't for SOME intelligent, compassionate people choosing to be teachers, social workers, doctors, nurses etc, then public services would be in a far worse state than they are now.

The logic of your argument is that every intelligent person in the UK should go into the finance industry, leaving childcare, teaching and much of the health services to the very thick and/or incompetent.

...and you admit to having a CO2-spewing aga??? You really are not fighting your cause very well, hedgie (congrats on being preg, tho).

I honestly believe salaries in this region are obscene and totally unnecessary (can you tell I'm a bit of a leftie) and fail to see how anyone could deserve to earn such a figure. Of course I believe people should be rewarded for working hard, but once salaries get silly I think the government are right to tax at very high rates. The only people I know who firmly believe these salaries are justified are bankers. The sector is rotten and needs a massive overhaul

I would be utterly ashamed if I complained about what the OP posted about.

That puts you in the top 1% of the world.

99% of the world are poorer than you.

Just how arrogant would you have to be to think you deserved more money than 99% of the world

This is not going to affect the food in their cupboards or the roof over their head.May have a small indentation on the holiday or new car budget but hardly unreasonable considering some people are not able to manage the most basic needs atm

OP - Would such a tax increase impinge on your life?

It it only an extra 10% on any amounts over £150K.

Gosh, lots of chips on shoulders on this thread.

That's not my logic. Yes, I work in the financial industries, but then have little holiday and a stressful job and quite frankly go when a friend who is a teacher at a SN school says "the minimum length of holiday you should take is 2 weeks". But then, she gets to make a huge difference in children's lives, and does not get told repeatedly how her industry has ruined the country, what an evil greedy bastard blah blah blah. I get paid more. It's the way life is. Either of us could have done each other's jobs; I could be a teacher, but chose not to because that's not what I want out of life. She chose to be a teacher because she wants to look after children. End of.

But I'm not complaining that someone as intelligent as me is earning more.

In fact many people less intelligent than me are earning more but I'm not complaining about that either.

I could have gone and earned lots but I didn't enjoy the atmosphere/personality types that I had to work with.

What I am complaining about is that the people who earn pots of money really honestly believe that they are being hard done by, and that they deserve to earn more than everyone else because they are so fabulous.

As I explained in my previous post, that is what gets on my tits.

Rather patronising Nancy66?

I think my objection is that raised by, I think, the Lib Dems - that this increase will in fact raise relatively little money (£180m?), when the real problem lies in the tax avoidance schemes used by extremely wealthy individuals and big business, which has not been addressed.

It is a pure headline grabber. My family will be affected by the tax rise, but my objection isn't based on the fact we'll pay more. I agree we are incredibly fortunate - at the moment - and if things were to go awry and we had to ditch the private health care, school etc, I'd be pretty grateful for a well-run public sector.

But this increase in tax, to 50%, won't make much difference to our national finances. It is purely political.