Clegg Promises to help Workers

Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrat party, recently announced that if his party is re-elected next year he will cut income tax and NI, which he predicts will help around 30 million workers. These cuts will be achieved through raising the 20% tax rate threshold to the first £11,000 of a worker’s income, which will save every taxpayer £500. The Lib Dems then aim to raise the personal allowance further to £12,500 by 2020. They will also look to implement a raise in the National Insurance rates to match those of income tax. However, to pay for these tax breaks, there would have to be an increase to the tax applied to wealthier individuals, which was declared as a ‘fair way of funding tax breaks’. Therefore, wealthier individuals would see an increase in their capital gains tax (which has already increased from 10% to 28% in the last four years alone). The Lib Dems also hope to increase the funds clawed back from corporate tax avoidance.