So the chancellor George Osborne has increased the personal income tax allowance for those who pay the basic rate of tax. Apparently this will mean around 900,000 people not paying any income tax at all, and all other basic rate taxpayers will be about £170 better off a year. To pay for this higher rate taxpayers will have their allowance changed so they do not benefit from this increase.
Sounds fair, so is it??...................Well I think it is. My only problem is that it doesn't quite go far enough. The Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives, as part of their coalition agreement, signed up to a long-term goal of raising the income tax threshold to £10,000 to the basic rate taxpayer. I personally believe this should have been brought in, in full, in this budget. But still, it is a step in the right direction to making income tax a fairer tax to all who pay it.
One other thing - although this move is a good move as far as I can see, I can't help but wonder whether it will really have much impact on families across the country when the VAT rate has risen and public spending is being cut back on. Only time will tell...
No comments:
Post a Comment