Taxing times ahead

Gordon Brown grabbed the headlines in last year's budget when he announced a 2% cut in the basic rate of income tax. However, the changes to personal taxation, due to take effect this April, are more far-reaching than they first appear. Meanwhile lesser publicised changes to National Insurance (NI) will mean that anyone earning above approximately £35,000 will pay more NI. The changes mean that, from April, the 10% starting rate of income tax will be abolished for earned income and pensions. So the first slice of people's taxable income will be taxed under the basic rate. This means peo...