Both major parties have now published their detailed manifestos for the General Election. Clients may be interested in some of the key tax and economic points of each:
Labour (see their manifesto here) is committed to:
- Increasing Income Tax to 50% on incomes over £150,000
- Re-introducing a 10% starting rate of Income Tax
- Keeping other rates of Income Tax, NIC and VAT unaltered
- Introducing a “Mansion Tax” on houses worth over £2m
- Abolishing non-domiciled tax status
- Restricting tax relief on pension contributions
- Attacking “disguised employment”
- Increasing HMRC powers
- Increasing penalties for evasion
- Increasing National Minimum Wage to £8 per hour by October 2019
- Increasing security of private tenants with guaranteed 3-year tenancies and capped rent rises
- Promoting the building of at least 200,000 homes a year by 2020
- Abolishing “zero-hour” contracts.
The Conservatives (see their manifesto here) promise:
- No rise in any rates of Income Tax, NIC or VAT
- Increasing the threshold for payment of the 40% Income Tax rate to £50,000
- Increasing Personal Allowance to £12,500 and in future increasing it in line with increases in the National Minimum Wage
- Introducing an extra IHT allowance of £175,000 per person available only against the family home, so bringing a couple’s IHT nil rate band up to £1m
- Increasing the “Remittance Basis User Charge” for people domiciled outside the UK
- Reducing tax relief for pension contributions for taxpayers with income over £150,000
- Maintaining the “most competitive business tax regime in the G20”
- Giving employees of “large employers” and the public sector a right to three days per year paid leave for voluntary work
- 200,000 Starter Homes by 2020 (to be available to under 40s, at 20% off market value).