Taxing income from wealth, rather than work

We are already seeing renewed focus on the language used by parliamentarians in defining where the line is drawn on the government’s commitments on tax, says Chris Etherington

Labour’s 2024 manifesto commitment outlines that the government ‘will not increase taxes on working people, which is why we will not increase National Insurance, the basic, higher, or additional rates of income tax, or VAT’.

That has inevitably led to questions on what is meant by ‘working people’ and where the line is drawn. Darren Jones, chief secretary to the Treasury, has recently outlined that it broadly means ‘anyone that gets a payslip’.

That broad definition may be an overgeneralisation, and too much could be read into it. For example, it would appear to exclude the self-employed, who would probably feature in most people’s definition of a working person, and most likely the Treasury’s definition as well.

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