Tag Archives: income tax

NewsHound

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

By NewsHound | Mon 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

…

Continue reading »
Posted in LibLink | Also tagged , and | 2 Comments
Mark Pack

What Liberal Democrat members think of different tax policies

By Mark Pack | Wed 5th October 2011 - 1:50 pm

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 550 party members responded, and we’re currently publishing the full results.

Cut income tax and VAT but raise taxes on property: that’s the message from Liberal Democrat party members in our latest survey. Some answers to our tax questions are unsurprising, such as the North Korean style (or, for older readers, the Albanian style) majority in favour of raising the personal allowance threshold for income tax to £12,500, approximately equivalent to what a …

Continue reading »
Posted in LDV Members poll | Also tagged , , , , and | 8 Comments
Ed Long

Demonstrating how the Lib Dem policy of raising income tax thresholds IS an irrefutably progressive step

By Ed Long | Wed 28th September 2011 - 10:20 am

Another week, another attack on Lib Dem tax plans. This one comes from Kayte Lawton, Senior Research Fellow at the IPPR, whose publication on Coalition Tax Policy concludes that raising income tax thresholds is regressive in its impact.

What do terms like ‘regressive’ or ‘progressive’ mean? Quantitatively, it’s a little difficult to define: we’re not talking about a single number, but about a distribution – the shape of a graph. If we consider net gains to an individual and order our data by income percentile, then a progressive distribution of gains would slope down from left to right; if we’re …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 19 Comments
Richard Davis

Opinion: Now is NOT the time to abolish 50p tax rate

By Richard Davis | Thu 8th September 2011 - 1:48 pm

A letter appeared in the FT today from a deficit* of economists which suggested that the 50p tax rate be dropped. Their reasoning, as was stated on yesterday morning’s Radio4 Today programme is that hedge funds are relocating to Switzerland in favour of the cheaper tax. While I assume if the tax was dropped the 0.5% of the population in the UK who actually pay that level wouldn’t contemplate leaving?

Having worked with hedge funds I recognised a few of the names, such as Sushil Wadhwani, listed in the BBC article as former Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) member. In other …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 34 Comments
NewsHound

Danny Alexander suggests £12,500 income tax threshold

By NewsHound | Thu 8th September 2011 - 12:13 pm

Danny Alexander MP has argued in an interview in this week’s New Statesman magazine that he would like to “push further” eventually on raising the income tax threshold higher than the planned £10,000.

Here’s an excerpt from the interview, published in the Staggers:

From the Treasury perspective, the main Lib Dem contribution to government has been the plan to raise the income-tax threshold to £10,000 by the end of the parliament. Alexander is very attached to this policy as a way of compensating people on low incomes for the cuts. “I think it’s a direction that we will want to

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged and | 26 Comments
Nick T

Opinion: Time for that Lib Dem tax cut in full?

By Nick T | Fri 10th June 2011 - 10:55 am

“Under a Liberal Democrat government, you will not have to pay any income tax on the first £10,000 you earn.”

So said the manifesto on which we fought last year’s election. And while we didn’t get a Liberal Democrat government, we did get the policy.

The coalition agreement commits the government to making real terms steps each year towards the target of £10,000, kicked off by an initial increase of £1000, benefiting the low paid by £200 this year.

But should we be moving faster?

Recent economic growth has, of course, been weaker than expected – no surprise given the circumstances. The events of …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 45 Comments
Helen Duffett

Nick Clegg’s delivery diary

By Helen Duffett | Sun 3rd April 2011 - 1:53 pm

Nick Clegg’s article in the Indy today is a spare, evidential piece, as neatly sliced and lacking in rhetoric as an appointment diary.

But what a diary. Flip back a year, and Gordon was driving to the Palace to call the General Election, as the Liberal Democrats prepared to launch their manifesto.

Now, Nick writes,

…something is happening that, for the Liberal Democrats, is a new experience: the policies we championed during the election are becoming reality. I don’t mean that consultations are being announced, votes held, or papers published. Over the next few days, lives will be changed for

…

Continue reading »
Posted in LibLink | Also tagged , , , , , , and | 3 Comments
Mark Pack

Two major tax reforms the government should see through

By Mark Pack | Fri 18th March 2011 - 3:23 pm

There’s been some promising chatter in the run up to next week’s Budget about two major changes to our tax system, both of which have often been talked about across the political spectrum and both of which politicians have previously ended up shying away from because of the political hurdles involved.

First is integrating income tax and national insurance. As The Independent reported,

The move is expected to be signalled by George Osborne in his Budget next Wednesday. Although such a huge change would take years to implement, the Chancellor is determined to be seen as a reformer and not just

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , , , and | 10 Comments
Nick T

LibLink: David Laws – Tax cuts for the rich can wait. Tax reform can’t

By Nick T | Mon 7th February 2011 - 5:25 pm

In today’s Times, David Laws, Liberal Democrat MP for Yeovil and former Chief Secretary to the Treasury , argues that the coalition must live with increased taxes on the rich as part of its deficit-reduction programme, but that reforming Britain’s complex and unfair tax system must be undertaken in earnest. Here’s an excerpt:

Under the last Labour Government tax policy was characterised, in the words of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, by “drift, punctuated by poorly thought-out changes”. A 10p in the pound rate of income tax was introduced and abolished. National insurance changes were made for political, not economic, reasons.

…

Continue reading »
Posted in LibLink | Also tagged | 29 Comments
The Voice

LDV readers say: Tax Capital Gains and Income at the same level

By The Voice | Sun 1st August 2010 - 12:25 pm

LDV posed the question last month (even before the Osborne/Alexander austerity emergency budget): Do you believe that as a matter of principle capital gains should generally be taxed at the same level as income?

Here’s what you told us:

    68% (946 votes) – Yes
    27% (371) – No
    6% (80) – Don’t know
    Total Votes: 1397, Poll ran: 10th June – 31st July, 2010

If you missed it at the time, it’s well worth having a read of the comments thread.

Posted in Voice polls | Also tagged | 11 Comments
Mark Pack

Did you know that two-thirds of people don’t pay income tax?

By Mark Pack | Wed 23rd June 2010 - 11:20 am

No, I didn’t either.

But that’s what Polly Toynbee says:

… it does nothing for the 62% of adults who earn too little to pay tax.

Oh hang on, what’s this Lord Bonkers is saying?

It’s not that 62 per cent of people don’t pay tax, it’s that 62 per cent do pay tax.

How out of touch with the lives of ordinary people do you have to be to make a mistake like that and not spot it? It hardly encourages you to have faith in Toynbee’s judgement as a columnist.

You think someone at the Guardian would have spotted it though.

Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 28 Comments
Sara Bedford

Lord Tebbit’s praise for the Lib Dems’ tax plans

By Sara Bedford | Wed 13th January 2010 - 12:42 pm

In his blog post in today’s Daily Telegraph Lord Tebbit asks, “Why won’t the two main parties do anything about the madness of taxing the poor?’.

“And I hate to say it, but only one party leader seems to have grasped that, if you construct a system where unskilled people are worse off by taking a job than by staying on welfare, they remain trapped in poverty – and that is Nick Clegg.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 33 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Rif Winfield
    First let me say that I've been campaigning for STV elections for over half a century (February 1974 is when I initiated the Liberal Action Group for Electoral ...
  • Jason Connor
    Try and listen to Sharon Graham's speech, the Unite General Secretary at their conference. Now that's what I call a radical progressive speech, not Andy Burnham...
  • Jana
    @Peter Davies “ Many now pay off their mortgage, inherit their parents’ house and get a private pension at about the same time. All those things are prefer...
  • Peter Davies
    "Has anyone mentioned UBI?" surprisingly not yet on this article. Both Mick who points out that the pension is not high and those who point out the massive weal...
  • Chris Perry
    @Meg Thomas There is a wealth of empirical evidence. Could I suggest you read by book....