Tag Archives: tax cuts (Lib Dem)

“We cannot afford it” – Cameron on raising income tax threshold to £10k. In 2010.

By Stephen Tall | Wed 1st May 2013 - 7:05 pm

With a hat-tip to Ed Stradling, here’s a reminder of what David Cameron told Nick Clegg about raising the income tax threshold in the first leaders’ debate:

Cameron 2010: “I would love to take everyone out of their first £10,000 of income tax, Nick…We cannot afford it” youtube.com/watch?v=rk5HvJ…

— Lib Dem Press Office (@LibDemPress) May 1, 2013

(Watch it on YouTube here.)

I think it’s fair to say the Tories have since had a change of heart. Apparently it was their idea all the time:

Posted in News | Also tagged david cameron, income tax, leaders tv debate and nick clegg | 11 Comments

Lynne Featherstone writes… Fairer tax for low earners and part time workers

By Lynne Featherstone MP | Sun 14th April 2013 - 3:25 pm

International Development minister Lynne Featherstone writes a monthly column for one of her local newspapers. Here is the latest one…

Week after week, I meet local residents at my constituency advice surgeries. Many are working hard in full or part time jobs, but still struggling to make ends meet due to the current economic climate.

The unemployed and part timers often tell me they want to work more but also keep more of the money they earn.

The Lib Dems have known this for a long time. And from now, the amount you can earn before being taxed has risen to £9,440. …

Posted in LibLink | 3 Comments

LibLink: Danny Alexander – The rich are paying more in tax under the Coalition, than under Labour

By NewsHound | Sun 7th April 2013 - 11:15 am

Over at the Telegraph, Danny Alexander follows up his piece in last week’s Sun on Sunday defending the Coalition’s benefits and tax changes — Bedroom blockers and tax dodgers will pay — but this time in less tabloid terms:

… cleaning up the mess left by Labour involves difficult decisions everyday that impact on people’s lives up and down the country. Few more so than some of the changes to our tax and welfare system that have come in this week. The welfare changes this week are difficult, but right and necessary to ensure that people are always better off

…

Posted in LibLink | Also tagged Danny Alexander and welfare reform | 2 Comments

Nick Clegg’s Letter from the Leader: “Delivering fairer tax”

By Stephen Tall | Sun 7th April 2013 - 9:55 am

Nick Clegg’s latest letter looks ahead to the local elections in England, with a particular focus on the Lib Dems’ successful delivery of £600 in tax-cuts for the low-paid compared to Labour’s time in power. Here are three quick, clickable ways of promoting this achievement:

Sharing the news on Facebook;

Watching and sharing this YouTube video;

Re-tweeting Nick Clegg’s message:

Today @libdems have delivered on our manifesto commitment to give people a £700 Income Tax cut #Budget twitter.com/nick_clegg/sta…

— Nick Clegg (@nick_clegg) March 20, 2013

Here’s Nick’s letter…

Posted in News | Also tagged letter from the leader | 12 Comments

New Tory ad campaign tries to claim credit for Lib Dem delivery of tax-cuts for the low-paid

By Stephen Tall | Sat 6th April 2013 - 5:25 pm

One Coalition policy, above all, polls strongly with the British public: lifting the income tax threshold to take the low-paid out of income tax altogether and to give a meaningful tax-cut to the lowest-paid.

As the Lib Dems have never been shy of reminding people, it was the party’s top priority at the 2010 general election. And it’s being implemented now because the Lib Dems are in government.

The Tories, it seems, have, a bit belatedly, noticed that cutting the taxes of the low-paid is quite a savvy thing to do. So, the Spectator tells us, they’ve launched their own posters claiming the credit for this Lib Dem initiative.

Such is politics. It’s worth recalling what the Tory tax pledges were in 2010:

Posted in News | 8 Comments

LibLink: Danny Alexander – Bedroom blockers and tax dodgers will pay

By The Voice | Sun 31st March 2013 - 4:45 pm

Lib Dem chief secretary to the treasury Danny Alexander has published a robust defence of the Coalition’s welfare reforms in The Sun on Sunday. Here’s how it starts:

Last week a young woman came to talk to me about her housing situation. Her frustration was obvious. She was working hard in a low-paid job and was stuck in an overcrowded home with a young family and desperately needed to move to a bigger home. She couldn’t understand why she had to wait so long to get a home that was the right size for her and her family. It’s a story

…

Posted in LibLink | Also tagged bedroom tax, Danny Alexander, mansion tax, the sun and welfare reform | 50 Comments

56% of Lib Dem members say: let’s now ensure no-one on minimum wage pays any income tax

By Stephen Tall | Thu 21st March 2013 - 12:20 pm

Lib Dem Voice polled our members-only forum recently to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 650 party members have responded, and we’re publishing the full results.

56% say: no income tax for anyone paid less than the minimum wage

In 2010, the Lib Dems pledged to increase the personal income tax allowance to £10,000, cutting the tax bills of low- and middle-income earners. Which of the following personal taxation policies, if any, would you most like to see the party campaigning on at the next election?

…

Posted in LDV Members poll | 6 Comments

A brief (recent) history of the Lib Dems’ flagship tax-cut for the low-paid

By Stephen Tall | Thu 21st March 2013 - 8:00 am

George Osborne’s fourth budget saw him finalise the commitment to implement in full the Lib Dems’ number one manifesto commitment: taking out of income tax all those who earn less than £10k a year.

It prompted this post by my Co-Editor Caron Lindsay yesterday – Why it’s worth being a member of the Liberal Democrats – recalling the recent history of this focus on raising the tax-free allowance. Which in turn triggered this comment by Alex Wilcock, recalling the slightly less recent history:

The fact is, raising thresholds was party policy in the 1990s, then put back on the agenda when Chris Huhne made it the central plank of his Leadership campaign in February 2006.

Curious, I thought I’d do a quick fact-check. Here’s what I found:

Posted in News | Also tagged alex wilcock, caron lindsay, Centre for Policy Studies, chris huhne, general election manifesto and maurice saatchi | 6 Comments

Budget 2013: Osborne crosses fingers and hopes ‘steady as she goes’ will come good by 2015

By Stephen Tall | Wed 20th March 2013 - 8:05 pm

Move along, nothing to see here… This was a steady-as-she-goes budget at a time when the economy is anything-but-steady.

Of course as Lib Dems it’s great to welcome the final push towards lifting all those paid less than £10,000 out of income tax. As my Co-Editor Caron Lindsay notes here, this is a policy direct from the front page of our 2010 manifesto to the Coalition’s budget. That’s no mean achievement — we know that because the Tories keep trying to claim it as …

Posted in News and Op-eds | Also tagged budget 2013, featured and george osborne | 13 Comments

Lynne Featherstone writes… Three Lib Dem policies really stand out for me in 2012

By Lynne Featherstone MP | Sat 22nd December 2012 - 10:50 am

International Development minister Lynne Featherstone writes a monthly column for one of her local newspapers. Here is the latest one…

What a year 2012 has been! There are three Lib Dem policies that really stand out for me this year: the Pupil Premium, income tax reductions for low paid and middle income workers and equal marriage.

Before entering Government, the Lib Dems knew there were serious social mobility problems in the UK. Only one in five young people from the poorest families achieve five good GCSEs compared to three out of four from the richest families. Through the …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged equal marriage, income tax, nick clegg and pupil premium | 13 Comments

Danny Alexander: “We are delivering on our number one election pledge”

By The Voice | Wed 5th December 2012 - 3:12 pm

Danny Alexander has just emailed Liberal Democrat members about the Autumn Statement, emphasising that the Liberal Democrats have delivered on their key election pledge, to raise the tax threshold to £10,000. From next April, workers will be able to keep the first £9440 they earn, meaning that someone on the minimum wage has had their tax bill halved by the Liberal Democrats.

Danny asks members to share the picture on your right on Facebook. Already the Voice’s timeline is full of them.

The Autumn Statement set out the tough decisions Liberal Democrats are taking in government to build a stronger economy and fairer society.

Posted in News | Also tagged Danny Alexander and featured | 18 Comments

The Tories’ and Labour’s collective tax omnishambles

By Stephen Tall | Wed 18th April 2012 - 8:55 pm

Labour is against reducing the 50p top-rate tax to 45p for those earning more than £150,000. What could be clearer? As it happens, quite a lot could be clearer.

First, the omnishambles…

Given how widely predicted George Osborne’s decision to reduce the top-rate was you would have thought Labour would have anticipated it and worked out their line. They failed to — as Mark Pack noted here, Labour’s Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna contradicted himself within 24 hours, while Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls declined to declare his hand.

When Labour did …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged conservative party, featured, george osborne, labour party, nick clegg and taxes | 3 Comments

Budget 2012: A strategic and substantive victory for the Lib Dems

By Nick Thornsby | Thu 22nd March 2012 - 2:56 pm

The big substantive Liberal Democrat wins that yesterday’s budget contained will be familiar to regular readers by now. However, I think it’s worth highlighting once again just how big a deal the increase in the personal allowance announced yesterday is. A rise of £1100 is unprecedented, and means that those earning the minimum wage and working full time will have seen their income tax bills halved because of the Liberal Democrats.

Before Nick Clegg intervened publicly back in February to call for the threshold to be raised faster than previously anticipated, the working assumption was that it would be raised by …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged budget | 7 Comments

“Budget 2012: new tycoon tax in victory for Nick Clegg”

By Mark Pack | Thu 22nd March 2012 - 9:11 am

“Budget 2012: new tycoon tax in victory for Nick Clegg” – so reports the Daily Telegraph:

In a significant victory for the Liberal Democrats, the Chancellor effectively introduced a 25 per cent minimum rate of tax in the Budget.

Under the changes, he will limit how much people offset their tax bills by investing in businesses or donating to charity.

Anyone seeking to claim more than £50,000 of tax relief in any one year will have a cap set at 25 per cent of their income from 2013.

Accountants said this means the wealthiest will have to pay at least 25 per cent of their income in tax. Although the highest rate of income tax is 50 per cent, reducing to 45 per cent next year, some wealthy people reduce their bills to almost nothing using different reliefs available from HM Revenue and Customs.

The introduction of this major change to the tax system is one of the main reasons why, as I wrote yesterday, if you are on more than £150,000, you will pay an extra £1,300 a year in tax on average as a result of this Budget.

As for what Labour would do on the 50p rate they seem to be flip and flopping with each new interview – sometimes saying they would reintroduce it if they had the chance tomorrow/next week, and sometimes not.

For more on the Budget see a couple of the media interviews I did yesterday – first on the News Channel and then on Radio 4:

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged budget, george osborne, nick clegg, tax and tax avoidance | 10 Comments

The 50p tax rate is not for dropping – the leadership’s line

By Mark Pack | Sat 10th March 2012 - 12:46 pm

Given some of the recent speculation over the 50p tax rate, the speech from Stephen Williams (Co-Chair of the Parliamentary Party Committee on the Treasury) opening the debate on tax policy was significant:

Now is not the right time to drop the 50p tax rate.

The full context left open if there might ever be a right time, but unlike speculation in The Times a few days back, there was no offer of trading off the 50p rate against the introduction of a mansion tax.

His comments also reflected the text of the motion passed, which included:

Posted in Conference and News | Also tagged Danny Alexander, mansion tax, stephen williams, tax and vince cable | 2 Comments

Stephen Williams MP writes… What would you do with £60 extra every month?

By Stephen Williams MP | Fri 9th March 2012 - 2:43 pm

The Liberal Democrats are demanding that our Coalition Government gives you a much needed tax cut. We want to give hard-working people over £700 extra a year; that’s about £60 extra in your wages every month. Instead of helping millionaires, the Lib Dems want to give millions of deserving people a break. You can help us to get this tax cut announced in the Budget on 21st March.

Please tell me today what you’d do with an extra £60 a month.

By telling me how you’d use the £60 tax cut you’ll not only be spreading the word, you’ll also …

Posted in Op-eds | 22 Comments

LDVideo: Jo Swinson’s Political Slot: The Liberal Democrats are in government on your side

By Helen Duffett | Mon 5th March 2012 - 1:07 pm

Posted in Lib Dem TV and News | Also tagged apprenticeships, Jo Swinson, pupil premium, vince cable and youth contract | 6 Comments

New poll finds 60% of public backs Lib Dem flagship policy of tax-cuts for low-paid funded by tax increases for wealthy

By Stephen Tall | Tue 28th February 2012 - 9:45 pm

It’s a month since Nick Clegg made a fresh bid to put the Lib Dems’ flagship 2010 manifesto policy once again front-and-centre: further tax-cuts for the lowest-paid to be funded by higher taxes for the wealthiest.

And today came news of what the public thinks of the Lib Dem approach to fairer taxes, with the Independent reporting the following ComRes poll results:

A majority of people want George Osborne to raise taxes for the rich in next month’s Budget in order to take more low paid workers out of tax, according to a ComRes survey for The Independent. Some

…

Posted in News | Also tagged comres, nick clegg, Polls and tax | 23 Comments

The Tories’ tax problem

By Nick Thornsby | Thu 23rd February 2012 - 3:27 pm

Cut national insurance contributions, says Liam Fox. Cut capital gains tax, says David Davis. Give tax breaks to married couples, say Stewart Jackson and others. Back wealth taxes to cut taxes on “families and employers”, says Tim Montgomerie.

There’s no shortage of Tories suggesting taxes for George Osborne to cut when he delivers his budget. Yet it’s the junior party in the coalition which is leading the debate on tax cuts – a curious situation which no doubt shocks Tories as much as it infuriates them.

The reasons the Lib Dems are leading the way on tax cuts are straightforward. First, the …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged david davis, liam fox, stewart jackson and tim montgomerie | 12 Comments

Laws and Hughes up pressure on Osborne to cut taxes for the lowest paid

By Nick Thornsby | Mon 20th February 2012 - 4:58 pm

Yesterday’s Independent on Sunday carried the news that Lib Dem MPs will this week step up the pressure on the chancellor, George Osborne, to move more quickly to raise the income tax personal allowance to £10,000. This follows Nick Clegg’s speech last month in which he called publicly for the upcoming budget to go faster than previously anticipated in implementing the policy.

As the Indy reports:

This week the Lib Dems will mount a major campaign to persuade Mr Osborne to agree to a sharp increase in the allowance. Simon Hughes, the party’s deputy leader, has urged all members and

…

Posted in News | Also tagged david laws, newsnight and simon hughes | 10 Comments

What The Spectator says: ‘Obama the Lib Dem’. (PS: It may even be a compliment.)

By Stephen Tall | Tue 14th February 2012 - 8:12 pm

Over at The Spectator, Jonathan Jones looks at the US and UK approaches to their forthcoming budgets — cutting the deficit, taming debt, etc — and his fourth and final point concludes:

Obama the Lib Dem. It’s striking how similar Obama’s tax priorities are to those of the Liberal Democrats, even though the specifics differ either side of the Atlantic. Obama wants to extend the payroll tax cut for ‘160 million hardworking Americans’, which he says is worth ‘about $40 in every paycheck’ for ‘the typical family earning $50,000 a year’. The Lib Dems have been pushing to raise the

…

Posted in News | Also tagged barack obama, daniel radcliffe, jonathan jones and the spectator | 6 Comments

LibLink: James Plunkett – Budget 2012: 20 minutes in, 1-0 Team Clegg

By NewsHound | Mon 13th February 2012 - 12:25 pm

Over at the New Statesman, James Plunkett, who is leading the Resolution Foundation’s Commission on Living standards, looks at what we’ve learned from the recent interventions by Nick Clegg (pushing for a £10k income tax threshold to help the lowest-paid) and Danny Alexander (urging this be paid for by ending higher-rate pension relief) — and what those interventions might mean for George Osborne’s budget this March…

If there’s one thing Alexander’s intervention confirms it’s this: the key question for the 2012 Budget is no longer whether the Lib Dems will get anything on personal allowances but how the next

…

Posted in LibLink | Also tagged Danny Alexander, james plunkett, nick clegg and pensions | 3 Comments

90% of Lib Dem members back 50p tax for highest earners & 73% increased taxes for wealthiest

By Stephen Tall | Mon 13th February 2012 - 7:45 am

Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 570 party members responded, and we’re publishing the full results.

90% of Lib Dem members back principle of 50p rate

LDV asked: In 2009 a new top rate of income tax of 50p in the pound was introduced for earnings over £150,000. Previously the top rate of income tax had been 40p in the pound. At what income level do you think the Coalition Government should set the 50p top rate of income tax?

…

Posted in LDV Members poll | Also tagged wealth taxes | 13 Comments

Danny Alexander: it’s time to axe higher-rate tax relief on pensions to fund tax-cuts for lowest-paid

By The Voice | Sat 11th February 2012 - 5:58 pm

A couple of weeks ago, Nick Clegg signalled his determination to cut the taxes of the lowest-paid — now Lib Dem chief secretary to the treasury Danny Alexander is pressing for the tax-rise that would enable the Coalition to get on with it.

Here’s how the Telegraph reports it:

Danny Alexander, a Liberal Democrat Cabinet minister, says the better-off are receiving overly-generous tax relief when they invest money for their retirement. Mr Alexander’s proposals would see tax relief halve from 40 per cent to 20 per cent. He also wants workers on the minimum wage, who earn up to

…

Posted in News | Also tagged Danny Alexander and pensions | 8 Comments

Lib Dems put pension tax breaks for the richest under scrutiny again

By Mark Pack | Sat 11th February 2012 - 10:25 am

Liberal Democrat pressure in the coalition government has already secured significant reductions in the tax breaks for the very richest. However, these tax breaks are still sufficiently generous that there is the scope for raising plenty more money without introducing punitive tax rates.

For example, restricting the tax relief on pension contributions to 20% (the standard rate for most people) rather than the current 40% for those earning over £100,000 would raise over £3.5 billion more each year. Last year, in a clear sign of the way in which senior Liberal Democrats are thinking, David Laws asked a series of Parliamentary …

Posted in News | Also tagged Danny Alexander, david laws and tax | 10 Comments

97% of Lib Dem members back Nick’s call for raising income tax allowance to £10k as immediate priority

By Stephen Tall | Fri 10th February 2012 - 7:55 am

Overwhelming support for ‘further and faster’ tax-cuts for low-paid

LDV asked: The Coalition is committed to increasing the level at which income tax becomes payable, from its current £7,475 to £10,000 by 2015. The tax-free threshold was expected to rise by about £630 annually. However, in a recent speech Nick Clegg said, “I want the Coalition to go further and faster in delivering the …

Posted in LDV Members poll | Also tagged nick clegg and tax | 4 Comments

Clegg’s call for income tax cuts for the low paid is welcome, but will the Tories back him?

By Nick Thornsby | Thu 26th January 2012 - 6:54 pm

It’s no secret that Nick Clegg is personally very committed to the Lib Dem – and now coalition – policy of raising the threshold at which people begin to pay income tax. It was one of the first big policies he argued for at conference after becoming leader, and was a key message during the 2010 election campaign. Clegg returned to the theme this morning, though, to call for the implementation of the policy to be speeded up.

Personally I think this intervention is very welcome, not only because the policy is a good and liberal thing in itself, but …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged income tax and nick clegg | 7 Comments

LibLink: Mark Pack – Nick Clegg turns media weakness into media strength

By Nick Thornsby | Thu 26th January 2012 - 4:23 pm

Over on his work blog, The Voice’s Mark Pack has a post looking at the extremely successful media coverage of Nick Clegg’s speech on tax policy, with the party using the fact that much of the media is still surprised by the idiosyncracies of coalition to our advantage.

Here’s a sample:

In a country used to coalitions, having the leader of one of the parties in government talk about their tax priorities a few months ahead of a budget would not be remarkable. With the British media habits, it had made today’s speech from Nick Clegg to banner news – lead story

…

Posted in LibLink | Also tagged Mark Pack, media, neil stockley, nick clegg and tax | 2 Comments

Nick Clegg returns to income tax

By Mark Pack | Thu 26th January 2012 - 7:34 am

Later this morning, Nick Clegg will be giving a speech to the Resolution Foundation (word cloud here) in which, after recent talk about wealth taxes, he is returning to the topic of income tax cuts. More specifically, speeding up the progress towards a basic income tax allowance of £10,000 whilst keeping the 50p rate.

This is of course closely linked to wealth taxes as they are a way to raise the funds to pay for the income tax cuts.

Posted in News | Also tagged nick clegg, resolution foundation, tax and vince cable | 2 Comments

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Tag Archives: tax cuts (Lib Dem)

56% say: no income tax for anyone paid less than the minimum wage

First, the omnishambles…

90% of Lib Dem members back principle of 50p rate

Overwhelming support for ‘further and faster’ tax-cuts for low-paid

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