Tax increases imminent

[Iwishicouldflyhigh]

Heavy hints that taxes will rise in the next Budget after the recent climb down (as the ‘taxes won’t rise again’ was based on a 5 billion saving in benefits).

I can’t lie, I’m so pissed off about this. I don’t think anyone wants to see someone who is genuinely unable to work to be further penalised, but we all know there are thousands of people who could work but don’t.

this country is going to absolute shit . We pay more and more for less and less.

I am not pro labour at all. You come across as quite ignorant of any parties' policy positions.

Anyone looking for exact numbers isn't really the brightest and best.

There is a concept of indicative. I don't need to know how much a firkin holds to gauge it as being more than a quart.

And if you want to attack more than one area, you would at least assign them prortionate resources. So you'd spend less on cutting benefits than you would on gathering taxes.

The issue with comparing UK taxes is, that we also have to compare wages.

I know my home country has higher taxes and higher wages for most professionals. It also has higher living standards and healthcare very much focuses on prevention rather than cure.

I'd move back in a heartbeat, but my very British DH & DC'S would struggle to find their feet in a very rigid system

Years and years of low wages, in work benefits and poorly run NHS are all contributing to the current situation.

Just throwing money at the problem won't solve it. We do need to re structure, but maybe hitting the ill & vulnerable in our society first, isn't the right way to approach this.

Well there's a surprise. Not. We will, we will, we won't reform benefits. We Won't, we won't, we will increase taxes. Pathetic bunch.

Really that’s great. I’m so disappointed in your opinion.

They said they would improve services without increasing tax. Sunak called them out on it and then was brushed off as a liar.

Everyone with any ounce of financial sense knew it wasn't possible though.

There are two universal truths on tax. The first is you can only tax people that can afford to pay the tax. So in general this means the working poor and the middle class. Labour generally see the middle class as the enemy so rinsing them is fine.

The second is the richer you get, the more money you can spend on tax avoidance. And also because you don't need so much liquidity you can tie up your money in things that are harder to tax. Such as overseas property. If you are rich it becomes that much more profitable to pay large sums to accountants to avoid paying tax, to move countries and assets etc.

We need to work harder on tax avoidance. So more property taxes. Property is really easy to tax. It's a pile of bricks and you can't move it, and even if you did the land would still be taxable. More and more tax should be raised off properties, and this is common in other countries. Why is this not done ? Well because some very wealthy and influential people hold large property portfolios and the taxation consequences of this for them would be enormous. So the government doesn't do it.

The second is to tax more unearned income. This is income from asset investment rather than earnt money through wages, officially known as CGT. We need to increase CGT as unearned income is the way in which the wealthy maintain wealth and avoid tax. The problem is that governments always hit the little people. So instead of raising CGT and hitting the wealthy (a small fraction of people on PAYE actually pay CGT) they hit the little persons investments by doing things like restricting ISA contributions.

The finals is to tax pensions more. Yes pensions are important and everyone needs them and should be encouraged to have them. But the wealthiest in this country and many of the middle class build up huge pension pots over their lifetimes. I don't think most people realise just how enormous these pots are, even for people in fairly middling jobs. The government has lost massive amounts of revenue through taxation relief on pension contributions, and to me these need to be clawed back. There is no way 40% tax relief should ever have been given, it's just something to make the wealthy more wealthy at the expense of the nations finances. No one needs they amount of money many people have amassed for their retirement.

I also think there should be a covid clawback tax. Vast amounts of money that was absolutely not needed was shovelled towards the middle class during covid. rather than people just getting sustainance they were given large amounts of extra cash over and above what they needed to survive during lockdown and this really needs to be clawed back. It's completely unfair that the poor should be made to shoulder the burden of paying back debt on this.

Sometimes hard decisions have to be made for the better of the country. I can understand the sensitivity of welfare reforms and why Labour MPs rebelled, but equally when it has the consequence of causing a far greater proportion of working people to pay higher taxes, it's hard not to feel a bit frustrated with what they've done.

As someone who works in a nursing home as an activity coordinator I agree the NHS should stop spending money on people who have no quality of life whatsoever. It is simply prolonging their lives for what end, it is simply dragging out the inevitable.

Thats not quite true, all that has really happened is there will be a delay until the Timms report comes out, cuts are coming.

Giving Labour time to get the reforms right, yes the Wellfare bill needs sorting but it should be remembered who fucked up the benefits system... it wasn't done in the last few months, it took years...

All those "UK has far lower youth unemployment than the EU..." that Tories liked to boast about...

Well, now you know why.

The other thing is this thread is scare mongering, along with all the other pre election scare ones... the budget is months away and no one knows what will be in it.....

many newspapers are running articles on likely tax rises - I agree it is scary but it’s a little over three months til the budget and without some sort of miracle labour will need to raise more money. All of the economists can agree on that…

Yep mn did the usual on that first bit, turns out Labour were lying.

On the other hand, it is not right to not treat people and leave them to suffer on their way to death. Good palliative care is the answer, but we don't have that. It is very expensive.

I'm happy to pay increased taxes in order to pay for public services and benefits for those who need it.

The irony in telling someone to grow up and then calling them infantile .

the welfare bill is horrific. Even KS agrees with that, but because he’s got no back bone, our taxes will rise.

actually I do think that treatment in the nhs should be chargeable at the point of entry but can you honestly imagine him getting that one through given the little control he has on his back benchers?

the only thing his back benchers won’t rebel on is tax rises, so that’s the easy peasey option fir him, isn’t it?

these next 4 years are going to be long.

The fact there aren't enough jobs for them anyway is by the by.

This is key isn't it, along with the fact that the number of jobs will shrink as AI continues to advance. I find it very difficult to see any way out of it to be honest. I saw an interesting discussion in the Times the other day about universal basic income, however it this is truly administered universally, how will it not encourage inflation and become worthless?

I think people have two main reasons to be upset with Labour.

The first is the lies they told to get into power, that they could make things better without that coming at substantial extra cost. They should have said we can make things better, but it's going to cost and we are not going to make any commitments about tax rises/reductions.

The second is that Labour are supposed to be the party that defends the downtrodden and the working poor. But they have consistently failed to apply taxation policy to richer cohorts while simultaneously failing to uphold things like the benefit systems.

No diehard Tory should feel that dissastified with Reeves as a Chancellor. She has followed a very right wing path and certainly not the path you would normally expect from a Labour government. I think the traditional Labour voters have a right to be really disappointed with what has happened since Labour took power.

HMRC publish the monthly tax receipts and NI contributions for the UK.

In May 2024 the government collected £55,815,000,000 in tax.
In May 2025 the government collected £61,181,000,000 in tax

That's an increase of £5.3bn.

In April 2024 the government collected £73,649,000,000
In April 2025 they collected £79,124,000,000

That's an increase of £5.5bn.

If that continues throughout the year, that increases the coffers by some £65bn.

Labour claimed that they inherited a £22bn "black hole" when they came into power. That should be repaid within 5 months of this tax year.

Ultimately all of these tax increases that are currently in effect will come out of people's pockets in the long run.

We've already reduced our headcount at work. Our clients are doing the same. People and businesses are struggling to pay bills more now than ever.

More people are talking about leaving the country if they're going to be taxed more.

I'm not sure how much more businesses can cope with...

https://ifs.org.uk/taxlab/taxlab-key-questions/how-do-uk-tax-revenues-compare-internationally

Rachel Reeves has a Masters degree in Economics from the LSE, so she is probably very familiar with the Laffer Curve.

She'll also know that it is a theory that has been used by the wealthy to justify why they should not pay more in tax, while ignoring that the fact that for the vast majority of the population, higher marginal tax rates do not apply.

As for "public opinion" being clear that the UK is at the top of the curve (for which you offer no evidence) is this the same "public opinion" that wants the country to have first-class, accessible and affordable healthcare; good infrastructure; a decent pension; a safety net in case of unemployment or infirmity; decent schools, universities and vocational training etc.? Or is this just the opinion of those who shout loudest and have most access to the media, and who have an uncanny ability to ignore that their favourite political party sold off the family silver (utilities, housing, infrastructure, oil) to their chums for a knock-down price and spent 14 years starving what was left of vital services to the point of near-collapse?

In the UK we get the worst of both worlds, though. European countries raise more tax by applying higher basic rates to everyone, not just high earners, and by having a tax-free allowance that is low or zero. That raises more than just targeting the top 5-10% because they won't notice. (If only....)

Our household's annual IT bill is six figures, but we can't get a GP appointment (like everyone else) or NHS help for disabled DS. At one point DS didn't even have a school place. We are creeping dangerously towards "failed state" territory if we can't even help disabled children.

It's right to ask what others would do in RR's place and I agree with charging a small fee to use a GP. However, this is the UK, so even if everyone agrees that (say) £20 is a reasonable figure, there will be howls of rage from the usual quarters, and by the time we've exempted children, benefit claimants, pensioners, NHS workers, immigrants, people on MW, people with certain health conditions, etc, only 20% of people will actually be liable to pay it, and the cost to them will be £150 to maintain the service for everyone else.

Before means testing state pensions, I would get rid of the triple lock and do something about the many trillions of unfunded public sector pension liabilities as well as the (often excessive) employer contributions. I say this as someone who stands to benefit significantly from a NHS pension. To keep these liabilities off UK gov's "books", no NHS pension fund exists. However, it is totally untenable for the dwindling pool of UK taxpayers to fund the largesse being enjoyed by current final salary retirees and the reforms did not go nearly far enough.

It's very easy to piously spout this to demonstrate you are a good person, but if more and more of earnings are siphoned away (and with inflation, those earnings are worth less and less all the time) and cuts continue to be made, it's a bit harder to feel so benevolent.

If people are as keen to pay more in taxes as some on mn seem to be then pledge it at a GE rather than the opposite. Don’t lie then raise taxes.

This is like saying mum, dad my 150k year job doesnt pay enough i cant live or pay off my credit card debts... you need to give me more pocket money...

While simultaneously leaving the heating on and windows open, buying another expensive sports car from a dodgy second hand dealership with crap HP interest rate terms, then hiring a team of cowboy builders to build an extension on your already massive house, then loaning 3 of your mates 5k each to go on hold because they are broke but "stressed" and signing up to be a guarantor on your unreliable girlfriends new flat.

We are hemorrhaging money on net recipients many of whom are bad actors. Its an unpallatable truth but it is the truth.
there are now more net receipients(52%) than net contributors.

Higher rate Taxpayers and benefits are no longer supporting and protecting the weak and vulnerable... they are supporting the majority of the uk
Its not sustainable.
The system needs an overhaul and they need to cut expenditure.

Yes, and no. The majority of the tax raised doesn't come from us mere mortals who earn less. It comes from the wealthy who fall outside the averages.

I completely agree about wages not keeping pace. Years of under investment, penny pinching, terrible administration of the tax revenues raised, wastage, inability to write contracts (looking at you HS2), etc etc.

I also agree about poor management. Throwing money doesn't cure anything. Covid proved that as the government pretty much gave the NHS an open cheque book, and nobody thought to spend it on anything effective.

I think the principles of what this lot are doing are correct, but their bar is in the wrong place. The majority of pensioners I know do not need winter fuel allowance (picking that as an example), but the cut off was in totally the wrong place. Most things need looking at, but they've picked some very strange hills to die on.

Ok, let me guess. You want to lower the tax bill and at the same time you want to improve public services - more GPs and dentists, cut waiting times in the nhs, more bobbies on the beat, clean up the rivers, sort out the potholes, more defence spending, better education system, more funding for childcare, state pension and so on. Oh and you think all that can be achieved by simply cutting the benefits bill and keeping refugees out.

Why don’t you have a play with this calculator and see how far that gets you

https://ifs.org.uk/be-chancellor