The Tories are a party that represents middle class values, such as thrift, enterprise, low taxes, and a small government.
Rishi Sunak has strayed far from these principles.
He is confronted with the fact that the size and scope of the public sector has nearly doubled the economy’s total. Not only are taxes rising, but they are also increasing in proportion to national income.
Rishi’s Budget did not reveal the full extent of the tax raid on middle class families. Stealthy measures, some announced previously, were overshadowed by cheery tax cuts on beer and prosecco and the Chancellor’s tone was breezily optimistic.
The shocking truth is that Middle Britain won’t be able afford to buy its favourite fizz due Rishi’s extortionate billions from their pensions, investments, pay-packets, and inheritances.
Rishi Sunak has to face the fact that the public sector now accounts for nearly half of the total economy. Not only is this, but taxes are increasing to the highest level relative to national income since at least 1950 (Stock image).
Rishi is taking billions out of Middle Britain’s pay-packets and pensions, investments, inheritances, and investments (Stock Image).
£85bn NI grab
Although the so-called health care and social care levy was announced a month ago by the Budget Red Book, the full impact of the damage is only revealed on page 133.
Previously, it was thought the 1.25p in the pound hike in National Insurance from April 2022, would cost employees, some pensioners and investors a total of £12billion a year. In reality, it turns out that Rishi is filching more than £16billion a year from our pockets, rising to nearly £18billion in tax year 2026/7.
In total, he will squeeze more than £85billion over six years out of long-suffering taxpayers before rebates. A middle-class professional on £50,000 a year will pay an extra £505 and someone on £80,000 will pay an additional £880.
£3bn divi damage
The tax on share dividends will increase by 1.25p in pound as part the health and social service levy. This will raise a total of £3.2billion by 2026/7 for the Exchequer at the expense of savers, many of whom rely on dividends to fund their retirement. Fortunately Rishi left untouched the tax-free allowance of £2,000 a year on dividend income.
But he froze the maximum tax-free limit of £20,000 a year for ISA subscriptions which will yield £50million for government coffers by 2026/7, to the detriment of small savers and investors. The Treasury will also snatch another £65million in extra taxes on profits from the sales of property, shares and other assets, by freezing the capital gains tax allowance.
£19bn Big Freeze
Rishi has not increased income tax rates, but has found other ways to extract more money from pay packets.
One sneaky but highly effective method is ‘fiscal drag’, which simply means not raising tax-free allowances or higher rate thresholds in line with inflation. As a result, people pay higher taxes and their real spending power is reduced.
Although the so-called Health and Social Care Levy was revealed a month ago, the full extent of the damage can only be found on page 133 in the Budget Red Book (Stock image).
In his April Budget, Rishi froze for five years the tax-free personal allowance for income tax at £12,570 until April 2026.
He is also fixing the threshold at which people start to pay higher rate tax at £50,270, over the same time frame. This will cost Britons a total of more than £19billion by 2025/6.
The effects of ‘fiscal drag’ are particularly worrying at the moment, when economists fear inflation is about to take off. The more it does, the more damaging the tax freeze will be.
This clever move also allows for more tax to be extracted by bringing more people into higher tax brackets.
Only 1.7million people, or 4percent, paid higher rates of tax at 40percent in 1990. This number has now risen to 4.6 million.
The costs to pensioners of the controversial decision to break the state pension ‘triple lock’ have been laid bare in the Budget papers (Stock Image)
By the end of the current Parliament, nearly 6million of us –or 11percent of working age adults – will be on higher rate tax, more than double the number when the Tories came to power in 2010.
Additional death tax
The freeze also affected families that want to leave a lasting legacy to their loved ones. The ‘nil rate band’ on which no tax is payable has been frozen until April 2026 at £325,000, a level that drags many modest homeowners into the net.
As the value of property goes up – and house prices have risen strongly in the pandemic – more grieving relatives will be hammered by tax on their loved one’s estate.
The Office for Budget Responsibility predicts that the annual amount of estates subject to inheritance tax will nearly double over the next five-years, from 25,400 in 2020-21, to 47,700 in 2026. You can still transfer assets to a spouse, husband, or civil partner without incurring inheritance tax.
£30.5bn OAP pain
The costs to pensioners of the controversial decision to break the state pension ‘triple lock’ have been laid bare in the Budget papers.
The lock – under which state pensions had to rise every year by whatever figure is greatest out of consumer price inflation, wage inflation or 2.5per cent – has been suspended, supposedly temporarily.
This was because Covid-19 effects had distorted the rate of wage growth and was running at 8per cent.
Suspending the lock will save the Treasury around £30.5billion over five years, but will deprive pensioners of income many can ill-afford to lose.