Kirsty Williams joined Newport East candidate, Ed Townsend, on the campaign trail, telling people how the Liberal Democrats would make the tax system work for thousands of people in Newport and right across Wales.
The Liberal Democrats will make the first £10,000 workers earn tax free. People earning £10,000 or less will not pay any income tax and those on the basic rate of tax will have a tax cut of £700 per year.
The tax switch will be paid for by making sure the rich pay their fair share by introducing a mansion tax on the value of homes over £2million by taxing income and capital gains at the same rate, and switching tax from income to pollution. In Wales, over 200,000 people will no longer pay income tax and up to 800,000 people will receive an extra £700 per year.
Kirsty said: “The tax system in this country is fundamentally unfair and that’s why the Liberal Democrats want to turn it on its head by making the richest pay their fair share. Under 13 years of this Labour government, our society has become unfair and the gap between the rich and the poor has increased.
“Across Wales, under our plans, over 200,000 people will pay no income tax and 800,000 will be £700 better off every year. In a family with two working adults, their combined income tax break will be enough to pay the council tax bill for the whole year. We want to help people during these difficult economic times.
“The highly respected Institute of Fiscal Studies last week said that our tax plans were progressive, they add up and they give people an incentive to work. This is in stark contrast to the assessment of Conservative tax plans, which the IFS have shown to be both regressive by rewarding the richest, as well as self contradictory.”
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How can the liberal democrats claim to be offering a fairer tax system when they have no plans to reform the most unfair tax of all, Inheritance tax. The reason that this tax is so unfair is that the richer you are , the easier it is to avoid paying. The richest families go to tax specialists and have their assets written into trusts which means these assets are taken out of the Inheritance Tax calculation. More and more ordinary working people are being caught in the Inheritance tax trap due to the increase in value of their property, but there is little they can do about this as they cannot afford to employ the tax specialists that the rich can. If the Lib dems want a fairer tax system they should campaign that the family home is taken out of the inheritance tax calculation in the same way it is exempt from capital gains tax..Also why go to the trouble of setting up a mansion tax with all the costs,difficulties and anomolies that would be presented when you have Inheritance Tax, that could be taking money from the rich but doesn’t as they are allowed to avoid paying it?