Labour hammers low income earners in April 08 Tax Changes
The abolition of the 10% income tax rate, without a corresponding increase in the tax allowance from April, means that low income earners will pay the new standard rate of 20% on a greater proportion of their income from that month.
For those only paying 10% currently this will mean a big reduction in their income in addition to the 4.5% increase in council tax most have to pay.
It is appalling that those on low incomes will lose, whilst those on higher incomes will gain from these latest tax changes. Once again under this government the gap between rich and poor will get wider.
To calculate the impact on your income go to the Standard Life link (under Income Tax changes) on this website.
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I am a support worker at a FE college. I earn about £550 a month. I will be about £15 a month worse off as a result of these tax changes. Is this fair? I work really hard with students of all levels and abilities, and certainly do not feel that this government cares about people like me.
I raised this issue at the 07 budget announcement, with all political parties, without any reply at all. Nor did any of the newspapers, or pensioner groups respond, although the implicatons were obvious at the time. Parliament agreed the abolition of the 10% rate of tax without thinking about the tax thresholds for the following year might be, and is corporatley culpable for this injustice. AS I predicted some fixed income earners at the lower end are severely affected. At a stroke my lower [10%] tax payment has doubled to 20%. As an under 65 [male] early retired local government pensioner with no other income entitilement than the LGPS pension any increase in my LGPS pension is reduced by this change.
Today,5.4.08., I see the BBC 1pm news is suddenly highlighting this problem.
What hope is there……Interestingly there is another anomoly… pensioners who are only entitled to the basic rate of state pension can claim allowances tax free, whereas those who have SERPS graduated penison and additional pension are taxed above the tax threshold limit, ensuring an inequality amongst pensioners, in particular, women under 65 who have [been] retired from employment.
Given the importance of the GREY vote, one does wonder why this issue was not brought to bear on the government at the time.