Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader, Kirsty Williams, has welcomed the announcement by the Chancellor to raise the income tax threshold to lift thousands of people in Wales out of paying income tax.
An estimated 50,000 workers in Wales will no longer pay income tax and many more will see a £200 reduction in their income tax bill as a result of the Chancellor’s plans to raise the income tax allowance by £1,000.
Raising the income tax allowance was a key commitment of the Liberal Democrats during the General election.
Kirsty Williams said:
“Increasing the tax threshold to help people on low and middle incomes was one of our key policies during the general election and I was very pleased that we were able to see it in the coalition programme of government.
“The announcement by the Chancellor will see over 850,000 workers across the UK lifted out of paying income tax altogether and thousands more workers will see more of their hard earned wages staying in their pocket. For Wales, this means that an estimated 50,000 workers will pay no income tax and many more seeing £200 stay in their pay packet.
“We all know that difficult times are coming given Labour’s recklessness with our economy over the last 13 years and that’s why we want to make sure that those on the lowest incomes are protected during the years ahead.
“Given the state Labour left our economy, there’s no doubt that this will be a tough budget. But it needs to demonstrate it will be both tough and fair. We need to begin making our tax system fairer, with progress towards the Coalitions long term objective of raising the personal allowance to £10,000, ensure the tax and benefits system rewards work and ensure that the burden is spread fairly.”
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“An estimated 50,000 workers in Wales will no longer pay income tax and many more will see a £200 reduction in their income tax bill as a result of the Chancellor’s plans to raise the income tax allowance by £1,000.”
But, we will have 50,000 newly unemployed.
Really?