alt Hacker Newsit is also because if one excludes real estate holdings, people in the uk are actually not that wealthy
39% of UK population pay tax 82% of those people earn less than £50k
the other 61% of the country just sit around and consume money. tbh its not that bad, being an unemployed bodybuilder or alcoholic in wales on the dole beats making £100k in london and paying 71% income tax.
its almost a form of cuckoldery, you work in the city like a dog for hsbc, to pay for refugees and layabouts to sit around at gregs and spoons, and then said layabouts build startups and leave the country
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More like 40% effective tax rate at £100k, even including employer side of things?
> paying 71% income tax
Do you have a citation for this? I'm interested in how this figure was extracted from where it came.
Your entire comment is filled with false claims and figures.
In 2025-26 there are an estimated 39.1 million people paying income tax - 56.0% of the population [1]. Of course, in the last census, 20.7% of the population were children [2]. About 3.1% of the population are UK students in University education [3], and about 18.6% of the population are retired [4]. I've also missed all the 18-year-olds in their final year of school, which is roughly 1.1 million or 1.6% of the population [5]. About 8.8 million, or 12.6%, are pensioners who pay income tax that I have double counted, usually due to private pensions and other sources of income [6].
Totally these numbers gives a rough estimate that suggest only about 12.6% of working age people do not pay income tax. This is in line with the government's own statistics putting those claiming Universal Credit at 10.6% of the population [7], or those economically inactive at 12.9% [8]. This is wildly different to your implication that 61% of people are too lazy to work.
Unemployment, which is roughly defined as those out of work who are actively looking for work, is at 5.2% [9], which it is worth noting is slightly below the EU and Euro area average of 5.9% and 6.2% respectively [10]. Direct comparisons are difficult to make, but it is certainly indicative of the UK falling within what is considered a healthy range.
Furthermore, take-home pay on a £100,000 salary is £68,561 [11], giving an effective income tax of 31.4% - far below your claim of 71%. True, there is the so-called "£100k tax trap" which gradually reduces your tax-free allowance above this salary. But this still gives just a 37.6% tax on £125,000, or 41.1% on £200,000. You may consider these to be high, but they are far, far below your claim of 71% income tax.
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/income-tax-liabilit...
[2] https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/uk-popula...
[3] https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/latest/insights-and-analysi...
[4] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/dwp-benefits-statis...
[5] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/infographics-leve...
[6] https://www.ftadviser.com/content/291a4ce0-9287-4118-849b-ff...
[7] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/dwp-benefits-statis...
[8] https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peoplenotin...
[9] https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peoplenotin...
[10] https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php...
[11] https://www.gov.uk/estimate-income-tax