to think that people who threaten to leave the country because they resent paying more taxes should just bugger off without trying to elicit sympathy form the rest of us?

[AllFallDown]

Oh and, many of those on high salaries earn that much either directly or indirectly because of the deregulation that caused this whole bloody mess in the first place. So to hear them moaning now they're aksed to pay a bit back ... Grrrr.

What a childish comment.
I propse daftpunk for Chancellor of the Exchequer - I'm sure that she could do the job so much better. Not.

whoops, keep your hat on curlz!

I was referring to the thread this thread is about (confused, anyone?).

You may make the deductions reach4sky but I don't. We have an agreement (as in the partnership I am a member of) with HMRC that I could claim 50% of all my motor expenses against my tax. I don't claim this as I do very low business mileage. If you're honestly incurring the expenses you claim fair enough, its the assumption that the self-employed are dishonest in their tax dealings that annoys. Anyway its a whole other thread.

"Problem is people seemingly not understandinghow tax works!"

Neither do you. THey are saying 51% because they are including NI, which tax by another name. And they can't get tax relief at 50% on pension contributions.

lol fembar..as it's the high earners that have got this country into the mess it's in (bankers)...how the hell they can moan about paying more tax, that will go towards paying for the millions they have put out of work...

i'd happily put them all on a plane...and a ryan air one.

Hmm, I think this is a little unfair.
The OP of the thread this is referring to said that her DH's firm would probably be moving to Asia (which she seemed quite happy about, admittedly) so they wouldn't have that much say in the matter.
She is also pregnant, came back to the thread in question and in all honesty didn't come across badly at all (didn't agree with her necessarily, but she showed humour and grace).

But yes, it is a tad obscene to moan about paying more tax on a salary which is 10x more than most people's wage.

yabu, they are not all in the financial sector, some are hospital specialists, surgeons, consultants who run whole departments and do procedures for private and NHS patients, their jobs ( once they have the right experience) have high starting salaries and with the add ons they can easily go over the 150, mark, most are already paying more than 40 grand tax anyway, they do have families and costs of living, relative to their desires and, not benchmarked by those who earn average salary, so it is unfair. I would be tempted to not bother to earn more than the threshold.

Well of course I am honestly incurring the expenses (mileage, all the stuff to do with a home office etc etc) but I incurred pretty much the same expenses when I was PAYE and none were deductible.

"Hopefully these tax havens will be closed down before too long"

Where on earth do people get the idea that this will happen? Other countries can do whatever they like I'm sure the camens won't be closing their tax haven any time soon

Claire it's no worse than people assuming that everyone who earns a high salary is a greedy bastard who was responsible for the downfall of the economy in the first place. A statement which is equally not true.

Fact is, if you are self employed you can get away with paying much less tax than if you're employed. If you choose not to do that then great, but reality is that most don't. It's legal after all so they're not doing anything wrong.

Wannabe Personally I think the self-employed should be hit first. I know several people who run their own businesses, and not one of them even pays the basic 22% income tax because of all the loopholes that allow them to avoid doing so. And no they're not high earners but so what? they're not even paying basic tax and it's totally legal.

Well, if that's true, someone had better tell our accountant about it. Because DH is self-employed and we pay every penny of our tax. I would like to know what these alleged loopholes are.

oh I didn't know this was a thread about a thread,

Daftpunk: not all well-paid people are in the finacial sector. Not all people in the financial sector are well-paid.
Stop making simplistic, green-eyed comments.

I've got better things to be doing than staying on here arguing with political illiterates. I'm off to go and earn my living.

Recent cave-in by the Cayman Islands over signing up to bilateral and multilateral agreements regulating the disclosure of tax information.

It's not enough, but it's a start. There's definitely a mood abroad, WannaBe.

About 30 years ago the 'top earners' in this country were taxed at 98% . Of course, they all buggered off. I think it was Thatcher who brought the top tax band down to something like 50% (?) and loads of them came back.

It is a problem because we don't actually want to lose all the income they provide. Our economy is struggling hard enough right now.

There are a lot of very rich people who will take the stance that they've had it good for a long time and now's the time to pay it back. Not everyone rich is a selfish git.

i know that fembar..i wasn't talking about the counter staff at Barclays on £15,000 a year..i was talking about the high earners who made the financial decisions that caused the problems....and they are on alot more than £150,000.

Well, without getting into the whole taxation brawl, I think that MN should reflect the full spectrum of life. If someone can start a thread about life on benefits or about redundancy, I think it's a bit unfair that all the Mumunists pile in to give a thorough pasting to anyone who admits earning over 20,000 a year. One of the things that makes MN interesting is the glimpse of other people's realities, whether that's life as a single parent on benefits or life as the spouse of a hedge fund manager.

I don't know. I don't have a religious bone in my body but I never feel the need to go onto the Christian prayer threads and call their children "brats". Live and let live

I didn't realise the word "brat" was so inflammatory. Scratch "brats" and replace with "little darlings". Better?

thread about a thread - bit pants - the 'aura' of the thread pants too.

all in all its not a discussion - as i would see it - its a 'have-a-go' thread...about a thread.

s'all a bit pants really.

however i would really like to know how earning £150k pa, is not lavish

please

thanks

it is alot of money...but if you live in london where a decent house is around £400,000 (even now)...it isn't huge....i'd love to be earning it...and i'd happily pay 50% tax.

AllFallDown: "Those who think the state does nothing for them are safly misguided.
"

I would agree with your point in as much as I don't think the state does nothing for me.

We are a higher earning household.

And I thank god that we are because without dh's earnings, my children would be well and truly fucked.

dd1 has no school place, and no liklihood of getting a suitable one - special schools are closing by the dozen, and mainstream schooling is not suitable for her. we currently fund her special school place. she gets no speech therapy, although she sorely needs it, and no occupational therapy, although again she needs it. there are methods and programmes which work for her, but we cannot get funding for them without an almighty legal fight (and this is only to get her up to "basic" functioning, not after bells and whistles provision) we currently fund a private treatment programme for her too, which has seen her come on leaps and bounds.

the nhs is wilfully ignoring the medcal problems that both my daughters have. Largely due to not wanting to admit they have problems, as that would open up a real can of worms. so we fund their care from dh's earnings, via private medical care, and i am very grateful that we are able to do so.

we recently moved across the country, at no small expense, to find better schooling for dd1. we have succeeded, but as i said before, we currently fund that place (and even at part time the costs are sky high)

I do not begrudge the tax we pay. dh earns x amount. his tax is y amount. that's the way ti is. But to now pay more tax, when I know for certain that our chances of getting even basic rights for my girls are only goign to decrease does leave me wondering exactly what IS happening with all the money. we are certainly not going to seeany benefit from this.

but you could say that (housebuying) about any amount of money

"ohh i earn a million a year, but i have a penthouse on 5th avenue NY" i have barely anything left...

400k for a nice place in london....that's not lavish then?

Daftpunk loads of people earn 150k plus who have absolutely nothing to do with banking!!!! Why do you insist on repeating that there is a correlation?

yes, agree..it is all relative.

I understand the argument that anyone, no matter how they earn their money, who earns 150k should pay more tax.
But that is a heap of difference to saying people earning 150k should pay more tax because they got us into this mess.
I have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with banking. I'm a writer - I make stuff up and I type it. I then sell it. In no way did this contribute to the collapse of Northern Rock.