Man cuts hours to keep earnings higher
A man deliberately cut his salary by a quarter to make sure he was better off.
Mark Brown, a pilot who helps run his tour guide business Let Me Show You London with partner Denisa Podhrazska, cut his working hours by 25 per cent after discovering that earning just over £100,000 would have a worse impact on his finances.
He now receives a net salary of £70,000, which is “much more tax efficient”.
He told the Daily Mirror newspaper: “You could see this coming because this has been tax policy for a long time.
“At some point, you’re going to run into this position where there’s a small window where once you get over that hurdle you’re going to be faced with a six-figure salary and a 62 percent tax rate.
“It seems ridiculous, so give away more money than you earn. I have the opportunity to take this time and invest it in our business.”
“We have a support, and I wanted to reinvest my time instead of spending more time collecting taxes at my day job.”
The UK government website explains that for every £2 your net income is over £100,000, your personal allowance will be reduced by £1.
If your income is £125,140 or more, you have a zero benefit.
Mark, 41, argued: “They’re attracting more people into this business. It’s frustrating. At my age, I should be in the prime of my career, able to give as much back to the economy as possible.”
“But since there’s a punitive tax hurdle there, I’m doing something else with my time. And it costs airlines a lot more to have lots of pilots on part-time contracts. It just doesn’t make sense.”
“If they had a more equitable approach to taxation, maybe more people could be productive and you could collect more taxes to spend in society. Maybe they could get more taxes so more people could benefit.”
