Treasury refuses to confirm Clegg’s £10k tax threshold pledge

Green Politics

The Treasury today refused to confirm Nick Clegg's announcement in yesterday's Sun - that he would raise the tax threshold to £10,000 - as government policy.

The Treasury today refused to confirm a policy announced by Nick Clegg in yesterday’s Sun – that “no basic rate taxpayer will pay any tax on the first £10,000 they earn” – as government policy, with the press office seemingly unaware of the article.

The deputy prime minister wrote:

“Now more than ever, politicians have to be clear who they are standing up for. Be in no doubt, I am clear about who that is. That is why the Liberal Democrats made a promise to voters on the front of our manifesto.

“That no basic rate taxpayer will pay any tax on the first £10,000 they earn.

“We’ve already taken the first steps which will take nearly 900,000 out of paying tax altogether.

“From April, every single taxpayer earning less than £42,500 a year will see their income tax bill cut by £200. By the time of the next election, 23million people will be paying £700 less.”

The same £10k claim was also made on the Today programme earlier this week. The Lib Dem leader said:

“…we are going to put £200 back in the pocket of ever ysingle basic rate taxpayer from April 5th onwards and by the end of this Parliament it will be £700 as we move towards this central pledge of making sure that no one pays any income tax on the first £10,000 they earn.”

Yet a spokesperson for the Treasury told Left Foot Forward:

“I’m unaware of the Sun article and I’m unaware of these plans. We’ll get back to you.”

They never did. The cost of 23,000,000 people paying £700 less by 2015 (which he says will happen in his Sun article) is £16.1 billion. The cost of the first instalment (raising the threshold to £7,500 by 2014/15) is £3.91bn. This leaves a total additional cost of £12.2bn.

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26 Responses to “Treasury refuses to confirm Clegg’s £10k tax threshold pledge”

  1. Avatar photo

    Will Straw

    Duncan – If it’s Government policy, why wasn’t it set out in the Budget? The Budget announced many plans for the duration of this Parliament but only set out 1/4 of this pledge. If Clegg wants to claim credit for this policy, he needs to say how he’ll pay for it.

  2. Rachel Surtees

    RT @leftfootfwd: Treasury refuses to confirm Clegg's £10k tax threshold pledge: http://bit.ly/hfM8a8 reports @ShamikDas

  3. L DTUC

    RT @leftfootfwd: Treasury refuses to confirm Clegg's £10k tax threshold pledge: http://bit.ly/hfM8a8 reports @ShamikDas

  4. Pat Raven

    RT @leftfootfwd: Treasury refuses to confirm Clegg's £10k tax threshold pledge http://bit.ly/gDgQKA

  5. Éoin Clarke

    I was under the understanding that PTA would rise iincrementally between now and 2015. The final budget in 2015 would see the figure of 10k reached.. David Laws announced it and there is video footage of him doing so.. the press conference launching the coalition agreement also announces it.

    Something which surprised me was how ittle consideration people have given to

    a) the fact that PTA usually rose with inflation anyways. Over 5years with inflation going as it is, the figure of £8k ish would have been reached…

    b) The remaining increments because they are staggerred would not save the punter much… think 10-8 = 2k taxed at 20% = £400 in the fifth year this would achieve fruition over and above inflation

    c) Permanent VAT means that 10K earners are actually worse off….

    It dismays me that the gov are not challenged more in this way..

    Well done LFF

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