Income Tax and National Insurance could rise after Theresa May ditches David Cameron’s 2015 Tax Lock
The PM left Chancellor Philip Hammond the flexibility to raise either tax rate over the next five years
INCOME TAX and National Insurance could rise after Theresa May ditched David Cameron’s Tax Lock from the 2015 Election.
Insisting she was a "low tax Tory", the Prime Minister nevertheless left Chancellor Philip Hammond the flexibility to raise either tax rate over the next five years. She insisted VAT would not go up.
And she confirmed that Corporation Tax would fall as planned to 17 per cent by 2020.
She also pledged to review the business rates system after an uproar from the high street trade earlier this year.
The Tories also shifted the target to balance the books and eliminate the deficit back to 2025 – 10 years later than the Tories had originally planned.
It means the Britain will have run a deficit for 25 years – building up a huge debt mountain.
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Daniel Mahoney at the Centre for Policy Studies said: “While it is quite understandable that Theresa May wants fiscal wriggle room during Brexit negotiations, this fiscal target is disappointing.”
two years ago pledged not to raise income tax, National Insurance or VAT for the entire Parliament.
It caused chaos in the Budget this year when Philip Hammond unveiled plans to increase NI for self-employed workers in a raid on White Van Man – only to ditch it a week later.
Defence Secretary yesterday insisted there was no intention to bring this back.
He told the BBC: “The promise we’re making is that the original proposal in the Budget is now off the table completely, because we are reviewing the status of self employment.”