No tax rises

Casdon

I don’t think income tax will be raised for the majority of working people, possibly for those on higher tax bands only.

There are not enough people in the higher tax bands to produce enough tax. If the government wants to raise taxes and get a sufficient income from it, then everyone has got to contribute.

There are roughly 35 million tax payers in the UK and only 6 million pay higher rate taxes. Higher tax rate starts at an income around £50,000. All tax classes are bottom heavy so the majority of higher rate tax payers will earn £75,000 or considerably less.

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It’s definitely a tough spot with borrowing up and economic growth slowing, so some kind of tax adjustment feels inevitable despite past promises. I’ve started using Pie Tax (https://pie.tax/) recently to keep track of my personal taxes and income sources, especially with all this uncertainty. It helps to stay prepared, whatever changes may come.

We’ve seen the difficulty of pinning down this ‘wealth’ which can exist in many places and forms with inheritance tax on farmers.

The problem is that the wealthy are as reluctant to pay out extra in taxes as the less well off, but much more able to find ways to preserve their wealth.

That being said, was this pledge sensible from someone in charge of the country’s finances?
However, at the time she pledged there would be no additional tax rises beyond those already announced.

I wii, yet again, post the link toRichard Murphy’s ‘Taxing Wealth’ report which is full of easy ways to increase taxation on wealth through equalising taxes and making them more progressive.

He is not in favour of a ‘wealth tax’ as such because of the difficulty of pinning down this’wealth’ which can exist in many places and forms. His suggestions would be simple to implement and tend more to slow the rate of further accumulation of wealth.

taxingwealth.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Taxing-Wealth-Report-2024-Shorter.pdf

Reeves would have plenty of leeway with suggestions like his, without having to place any tax burden on the struggling and just managing.

Under the previous government the number of senior tax specialists who could do this kind of work has significantly reduced:

www.taxwatchuk.org/hmrc-skills-future/

I see no reason for pensioners to be a special case when it comes to tax rises. Over a million are already paying tax at higher rate.

New figures from HMRC, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by LCP Partner *Steve Webb, show that the number of pensioners paying income tax at the higher (40%) or additional (45%) rate has doubled in just four years and has just passed the one million mark

*Former Pension Minister in the Coalition government

People were discussing Finland on another thread. I looked up some numbers from Price Waterhouse Cooper on tax rates in other jurisdictions. Someone in Finland with the equivalent income to someone in the UK working full time on minimum wage would be paying around a £1,000 more a year in income tax. They would also be paying 3% more for their equivalent of our NIC. I know little about living in Finland but all other things being equal, people in the UK are paying much less tax.

Silverbrooks

And if we levied a 3.5% wealth tax on the 156 UK billionaires who have £619.5 billion of wealth between them, it would raise £22 billion - coincidentally the same amount at the legendary black hole.

equalitytrust.org.uk/evidence-base/billionaire-britain-2025/

That’s a good idea, but they’re far harder to target than pensioners or smaller savers.

I don’t think income tax will be raised for the majority of working people, possibly for those on higher tax bands only.

And if we levied a 3.5% wealth tax on the 156 UK billionaires who have £619.5 billion of wealth between them, it would raise £22 billion - coincidentally the same amount at the legendary black hole.

equalitytrust.org.uk/evidence-base/billionaire-britain-2025/

I’ll be surprised if she puts personal taxes up

I will be extremely surprised if RR doesn’t put personal taxes up in the Autumn.

I don’t think she will risk putting up business taxes as that would be counterproductive to Labours grow the economy mantra.