Tag Archives: tax cuts (Lib Dem)

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

By Stephen Tall | Published 10th February 2012 - 7:55 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.

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 …

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

By Nick Thornsby | Published 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 …

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

By Nick Thornsby | Published 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

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Nick Clegg returns to income tax

By Mark Pack | Published 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.

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Ian Swales MP writes: 12 CUTS Labour don’t talk about

By Ian Swales MP | Published 30th December 2011 - 12:30 pm

The Labour party think they can win the economic argument by just wailing about cuts on behalf of their public sector union paymasters. They give no credible alternatives for what they would do about Britain’s economic crisis.

What they also like to ignore is some of the changes that are being made towards making this country fairer. Here is a list of cuts WE should be talking about because they are mostly happening through Lib Dem action and pressure.

  • The CUT from £250,000 to £50,000 in the maximum annual pension contribution to receive tax relief – clawing back a staggering £4,000,000,000 (£4bn) that Labour was giving to the rich.
  • The

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LibLink: In defence of the Lib Dems

By Prateek Buch | Published 16th December 2011 - 3:00 pm

Yours truly has a post on the New Statesman rolling blog The Staggers, responding to Mehdi Hasan’s rather provocative question, “What’s the point of the Liberal Democrats?”

Hasan pointed out five areas in which the Lib Dems had (in his view) “sacrificed their distinctive beliefs and principles and received little in return.”

I responded with my own 5 points, including:

1) Ask the nearly 1 million low-paid workers who have been lifted out of paying income tax altogether thanks to a Lib Dem manifesto commitment delivered in government. With the prospect of further significant reforms to come to make

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Opinion: “The first £10,000 you earn tax-free”? Not unless we act on National Insurance

By Adam Corlett | Published 1st November 2011 - 10:55 am

At Conference, Danny Alexander repeated his view that the personal allowance for income tax should be raised beyond £10,000, saying:

In the next Parliament, I want us to go further; our aspiration should be that someone working full time on the minimum wage should pay no income tax at all. An income tax threshold of £12,500 – think what that would do to work incentives, think what it would mean for basic fairness. Let’s put that on the front page of our next manifesto.

The idea certainly seems popular within the party. But remarkably absent from these discussions is any mention of National Insurance. The very first point in our 2010 manifesto was “the first £10,000 you earn tax-free” but, while it later clarified it meant income tax (IT), it’s hard to see why the parallel income tax that is National Insurance (NI) should be treated any differently.

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LibLink: Nick Thornsby – A simple change to the tax system could ease Britain’s economic woes

By NewsHound | Published 24th October 2011 - 10:16 pm

Over on Comment is free, Nick Thornsby is arguing for income tax cuts:

Political leaders in the eurozone must sort out their problems – and there is finally some hope on that front. When it comes to inflation, while George Osborne’s options to tackle the problem itself may be limited, he can certainly take action to negate its effects on the people on whom it impacts most severely. One of the most effective things he could do is to let those on low and middle incomes keep more of the money they earn. The coalition agreement already commits the government to

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Danny Alexander: £900m to fight tax avoidance and evasion

By Mark Pack | Published 19th September 2010 - 3:56 pm

Sunday lunchtime saw Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander address Liberal Democrat conference. The packed nature of the hall, the fullest it had been so far save for the rally on Saturday night, reflects both the importance of Danny’s role and the interest from many members in hearing direct from him.

What’s really happening with the cuts? How much is fairness figuring? And can Danny present the message successfully? Not being David Laws is a burden that has hung over his early days in office and this speech was his opportunity to establish himself in party eyes as his own …

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Tax cuts vs Public spending: Danny Alexander’s comments flag up the Coalition arguments to come

By Stephen Tall | Published 29th August 2010 - 4:37 pm

I’ve been critical these past few weeks of the news media’s obsessional search to put a cigarette paper between Coalition politicians: mostly these have been the product of journalists’ desperation to fill space.

But today’s interview in the Observer with Lib Dem chief secretary to the treasury Danny Alexander is, I think, significant for the future of the Lib/Con partnership.

… Alexander makes clear that total tax revenue will have to remain at least at current levels throughout the parliament to put the nation’s finances back in order.

“I think the tax burden is necessary as a significant contribution to

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Tory tax priorities: spend £6 billion on the wealthiest 0.8% in the UK

By Stephen Tall | Published 2nd May 2010 - 5:20 pm

Small wonder that Tory leader David Cameron publicly rowed back on his inheritaance tax cut for millionaires in last week’s televised debate – Lib Dem research released today shows the Tories’ promise would:

  • cost £6bn over the course of the next Parliament;
  • is aimed at the wealthiest 0.8% of estates in the UK; and
  • would benefit 3,000 of the wealthiest estates in the country every year by almost £250,000

As Vince Cable points out:

At a time when the gap between the richest and poorest is so great, it beggars belief that David Cameron wants to give the

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