Labour launches online calculator to track impact of Tory taxes
Labour has launched a tax calculator to tell working people if they are worse off under Government proposals.
The party said that, even with a National Insurance contribution (NIC) cut coming into force on Jan 6, families in Britain are still likely to be £1,200 a year worse off under Tory taxation plans.
Using the domain ToryTaxCalculator.com, Labour said the online tool will allow voters to select their salary band and find out how much extra tax they may be paying, even after the NIC reduction.
The calculator will be placed in social media adverts and be targeted at people who search online about their taxes, party officials said. The tax burden is at its highest level on record.
According to Labour analysis, since the 2019 election, when former prime minister Boris Johnson won a landslide victory on a manifesto containing a pledge not to increase taxes, there have been 25 tax rises.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has said the NI cut “won’t be enough to prevent this from being the biggest tax-raising parliament in modern times”.
Paul Johnson, director of the independent research body, said tax revenue for the Exchequer will continue to rise as ongoing freezes to income tax thresholds mean more people with growing earnings are pushed into paying tax.
Threshold freeze
From Jan 6, the main rate of National Insurance will be cut by two percentage points to 10 per cent. But Labour, citing workings by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), said that for every £10 the Tories are taking in tax because of the threshold freeze, they are only giving £2 back.
Labour calculates that, as a result, British families will still be £1,200 a year worse off. James Murray, the shadow Treasury minister, said: “After 14 years of economic failure under the Conservatives, working people are worse off, with wages flatlining and taxes up.
“The tax burden is now set to be the highest on record, with 25 Tory tax rises since the last election alone. Never before have working people been asked to pay so much and get so little back.
“It is time for change. We need an election now to give the British public the chance to vote for a changed Labour Party that will change Britain for the better.”
In what will almost certainly be an election year, the Conservatives have countered by claiming that families face a £2,200-a-year tax bombshell if Sir Keir Starmer seizes power for Labour. They will be hit with the rise needed to pay for Labour’s £28 billion green jobs plan, Conservative party chairman Richard Holden has claimed.
Mr Holden said it would be impossible to invest billions without the equivalent of the basic rate of income tax going from 20 to 25 per cent. The £2,200 figure is based on the average two-income household.
It comes as the Conservatives prepare for a tax-cutting budget in March, with speculation that inheritance tax could be axed or halved, the income tax base rate cut by 2p, higher rate thresholds raised and stamp duty reduced or abolished.
