[paulmckeever]

60% of the amount between £100-120k.

For that additional £20k in gross salary, your take home pay only increases by £8k, so the _marginal rate_ for each additional pound in that bracket is 60%.

[foldr]

Ok, but doing a rough calculation using https://goodcalculators.com/us-salary-tax-calculator/, you'd pay about the same percentage of tax in total from a 160k USD paycheck in California. So the level of tax is not radically different.

If you go up to 200k USD compared to 150k GBP, then you get to keep about 66% of it in California and about 60% in the UK. That's a difference that's quite easily lost in the noise when you consider differences in overall cost of living, healthcare, etc. etc.

I've found that Americans have a very fixed perception of America having low taxes and Europe having high taxes. But taxes in the UK are really not that much higher (except VAT in comparison to sales tax).

[Silhouette]

But taxes in the UK are really not that much higher (except VAT in comparison to sales tax).

Of course that depends a lot on which taxes you look at.

For total personal income taxes for an employee on salary, the highest marginal rate (ignoring the odd 60% band at £100k-120k) is currently 47%, and you reach that when your salary passes £150k.

If you go independent and start getting paid through a limited company and then paying yourself, the highest marginal tax rates are effectively about 50% if you pay out through dividends or 54% if you pay out through salary.

And then people wonder why we don't see more successful entrepreneurial types setting up new companies so they can take on bigger projects and create more jobs... I mean, who wouldn't want to pay thousands more in taxes for the same original revenue earned by their work, and take on a bunch of extra paperwork filing and other statutory obligations, while simultaneously losing out on a bunch of statutory employment rights and protections?

[walshemj]

But at level you quite often get a jump over that - also at that level you can make full use of the various tax reduction perks.

Employee share saves, 20K ISA, Salary Sacrifice into pensions, EIS at up to 1,000,000 a year for 30% tax relief SEIS is 50% relief but only 150k a year oh and their is VCT another 200k per anum at 30%.

And you pay as much property tax as a lower middle class person does in the states.

[sgt101]

But you are allowed to save all of that 20k in a pension fund and pay zero on it. Up to 40k a year and 1m in your life.

[desas]

Pay zero on it now. You'll be paying on it when you withdraw