UK Prime Minister David Cameron has stated his preference for further tax cuts – and aims to reduce the tax burden for the UK’s lowest paid earners; and not to lessen the 45% tax burden on the country’s highest paid workers.
Table of contents
To quote, Cameron has stated any excess Government money would be targeted towards “tax reductions on the poorest in our country.”
Helping the UK’s “hard working people”
The UK Government had raised the minimum threshold (the lowest wage at which people begin to pay tax) to GBP 10,000 in the Autumn Statement.
Mr Cameron, speaking on the Andrew Marr Show, has now indicated his preference to raise this threshold even higher – rather than cut the top 45% higher earner tax burden to 40% – in line with the Conservative’s tax policy.
He said that “the priority is to target tax reductions on the poorest in our country.”
As well as raising the minimum threshold, Cameron has frozen council tax, and cut petrol duty; all to help the UK’s “very hard working people.”
The higher rate of tax
The Prime Minister also stated that the 45% tax rate was now raising more in capital than the 50% top rate of tax did.
He then expressed his desire for the UK’s higher earners to “pay more in taxes.”
“I want taxes that mean the rich pay not just a fair share as it were in taxes but actually want the rich to pay more in taxes,” Cameron stated, and to this end he “ought to set tax rates that encourage people to earn, to set up businesses, to make money and then to pay taxes.”
When Mr Cameron increased the minimum threshold he faced criticisms from Conservative backbenchers for not offering any tax advantages to higher earners – such as by raising the upper threshold people have to earn before they pay the 40% rate of income tax.
They have claimed that the higher earners are in fact being “robbed” to pay for the middle to lower-income earners.
Tax cuts = spending cuts
The tax cuts will be paid for via an extended austerity programme, Chancellor George Osborne is expected to say on the 6th of January 2014 at a conference in Birmingham.
Despite four years of austerity, Osborne is expected to say that too much money is still being borrowed by the Government to pay interest on national debt.
He will add there are still big problems which have not been fixed, and that it is only by making large and fundamental changes to policy will Britain begin to live within its means.
Related Articles, Guides and Insights
Below is a list of some related articles, guides and insights that you may find of interest.
Questions or Comments?
We love to get feedback from our readers. So, after reading this article, if you have any questions or want to make comments, send us a message on this site or our social media?
Don’t forget that you can also request the guides sent directly to your email inbox.