With this autumn seeing the last political party conferences before the 2015 general election, the three main parties have made promises on tax and spending.
Conservatives:
With this autumn seeing the last political party conferences before the 2015 general election, the three main parties have made promises on tax and spending.
Conservatives:
raise the income tax threshold to £12,500, and raise the earnings point at which people pay the higher rate to £50,000 by 2020;
clamp down on tax avoidance by introducing a ‘Google tax’;
freeze on working-age benefits for two years from 2016;
reduce the 55% ‘death tax’ charge on pensions as follows: beneficiaries of those with a drawdown arrangement who die before age 75 will be entitled to receive the deceased member’s pension pot as a tax free lump sum; and for members’ deaths after age 75, the beneficiary will pay income tax at the marginal rate applying when withdrawals are made from the fund.
Labour:
levy a ‘windfall tax’ on tobacco;
introduce a ‘mansion tax’ on homes worth over £2m;
closing ‘loopholes’ such as the quoted Eurobond exemption; and
cut child benefit in real terms until 2017.
In addition to the above, over the summer Labour promised to:
increase transparency in the tax system ‘so that it is clear who owns firms and how much they are paying in taxation’;
tackle dormant companies ‘which can be used to avoid filing corporate tax returns and so trade for up to five years without paying tax’, by requiring the annual confirmation of dormancy and explore the possibility of banks automatically informing HMRC when there is activity in supposedly-dormant accounts;
encourage stronger independent scrutiny of the tax system and the government’s efforts to tackle tax avoidance by strengthening the powers of the NAO to scrutinise tax reliefs; requiring the chancellor and the chief executive of HMRC to give evidence to the Treasury Select Committee each year on the government’s efforts to tackle avoidance and evasion and report on the progress made on reducing the tax gap;
ensuring developing countries are fully involved in international efforts to tackle tax avoidance such as the OECD’s BEPS project;
tackling disguised employment in the construction industry by finalising the proposals Labour was developing in government to deem construction workers as employed for tax purposes if they meet criteria which most people would regard as obvious signs of employment.
Liberal Democrats:
increase the personal allowance to £12,500;
raise the CGT rate for higher earners;
lower the CGT exemption threshold from £10,900 to £2,500;
introduce a ‘mansion tax’ on high-value properties through council tax bands.
With this autumn seeing the last political party conferences before the 2015 general election, the three main parties have made promises on tax and spending.
Conservatives:
With this autumn seeing the last political party conferences before the 2015 general election, the three main parties have made promises on tax and spending.
Conservatives:
raise the income tax threshold to £12,500, and raise the earnings point at which people pay the higher rate to £50,000 by 2020;
clamp down on tax avoidance by introducing a ‘Google tax’;
freeze on working-age benefits for two years from 2016;
reduce the 55% ‘death tax’ charge on pensions as follows: beneficiaries of those with a drawdown arrangement who die before age 75 will be entitled to receive the deceased member’s pension pot as a tax free lump sum; and for members’ deaths after age 75, the beneficiary will pay income tax at the marginal rate applying when withdrawals are made from the fund.
Labour:
levy a ‘windfall tax’ on tobacco;
introduce a ‘mansion tax’ on homes worth over £2m;
closing ‘loopholes’ such as the quoted Eurobond exemption; and
cut child benefit in real terms until 2017.
In addition to the above, over the summer Labour promised to:
increase transparency in the tax system ‘so that it is clear who owns firms and how much they are paying in taxation’;
tackle dormant companies ‘which can be used to avoid filing corporate tax returns and so trade for up to five years without paying tax’, by requiring the annual confirmation of dormancy and explore the possibility of banks automatically informing HMRC when there is activity in supposedly-dormant accounts;
encourage stronger independent scrutiny of the tax system and the government’s efforts to tackle tax avoidance by strengthening the powers of the NAO to scrutinise tax reliefs; requiring the chancellor and the chief executive of HMRC to give evidence to the Treasury Select Committee each year on the government’s efforts to tackle avoidance and evasion and report on the progress made on reducing the tax gap;
ensuring developing countries are fully involved in international efforts to tackle tax avoidance such as the OECD’s BEPS project;
tackling disguised employment in the construction industry by finalising the proposals Labour was developing in government to deem construction workers as employed for tax purposes if they meet criteria which most people would regard as obvious signs of employment.
Liberal Democrats:
increase the personal allowance to £12,500;
raise the CGT rate for higher earners;
lower the CGT exemption threshold from £10,900 to £2,500;
introduce a ‘mansion tax’ on high-value properties through council tax bands.
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