They aren't pre-tax, which is a major reason I work from home - when I took my current job I refused to work in their office as it would be £2500 a year, which

They aren't pre-tax, which is a major reason I work from home - when I took my current job I refused to work in their office as it would be £2500 a year, which means I'd have to earn about £6500 more just to pay for the commute, add the extra 2 unpaid hours a day and the commute would mean I'd want an extra £20k pre-tax (that's £100 post-tax per week for the time, or £10 an hour) My effective marginal tax rate because of this (income between £50k and £60k) is 60% -- 40% income, 2% NI, 18% reduction in child benefits. The company has to pay employer NI too. That means for every £1138 they spend on a payrise for me, I get £400. While my income is in the top 10%, our household income is pretty average for people with 2 children because my wife only works on occasional freelancing projects to keep fingers in the pie (say 10 days a year), and I work from home the majority of the time - we don't want to outsource the upbringing of children. If we do pay for child minding, it's an inlaw, which means petrol costs and a bottle of wine - which all comes out post-tax, so doubles in price compared to sending kids to a factory tax free (or "childcare").