Millions of Brits could get £600 annual tax saving under rumoured Personal Allowance rise
The pressure is on UK prime minister Andy Burnham to improve tax payers' personal allowance.
For the last five years, British workers earn £12,570 annually before any tax contributions must be paid, but change could finally be afoot, leaving our pockets slightly more full.
Dale Vince, a multi-million donor to the Labour Party through his Ecotricity firm, is spearheading this ambitious systematic upgrade, warning that wealth is being 'taxed more lightly than work'.
He's identified £15,570 as the new sweet spot for personal allowance.
Advert
Per The Telegraph, he said: "If Labour wants to get the economy moving, it should put money into the pockets of people who will spend it.
"Raising the personal allowance to £15,570 would give millions of people a meaningful boost, with the biggest benefit going to those on the lowest incomes. We can pay for it by making the tax system fairer – starting with capital gains and the billions we currently hand to banks in interest.
"Give people money and they'll spend it on our high streets. That means more demand, more economic activity and a stronger economy. It's time to put working people first."
To do this, Labour must raise Capital Gains Tax (CGT) to as high as 45pc in order to fund a £20 billion handout.
Vince, who is the majority shareholder at Forest Green Rovers FC, laid out his proposal in a document for the next UK Budget meeting towards the end of October, and by cooperating with this request, Burnham would indeed perform on that pledge to run a 'cost of living government'.
According to findings at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), this proposed £3,000 rise in personal allowance leaves the lowest fifth of earners £600 better off each year.
That's a decent staycation weekender!
It is reported that a number of senior Labour Party members are already in favour of this pursestrings-loosening increase, while Sharon Graham (a representative of its biggest donor, Unite) recently urged Burnham to 'step in' and 'put more money in workers' pockets'.
Prior to claiming the keys to No. 10, the politician revealed that the £12,570 personal allowance freeze was 'the thing I heard the most on the doorsteps' of his constituency, Makerfield.
He's 'looking' into the increase, but caveated that such a move was not 'without significant consequences' for the public finances.
This comes as a body language expert weighed in on the PM's rendezvous with his controversial US counterpart Donald Trump.
Peter Collett told Sky News: "Certainly in the first half of the meeting Burnham hardly gives Trump any attention at all. All his attention is on the press, he's looking straight forward, and not at Trump while he's speaking.
"In other words, he's not giving him signs of respect, he's not being attentive, he's not being subordinate."
Trump appeared to be operating in a completely different manner, according to Collett.
"By contrast Trump, while Burnham is speaking, is craning his head round, really interesting, and on one or two occasions even nods his head," he shared, before noting how Trump even extended his hand out as a 'friendly almost bantering kind of exchange'.
Dan Seddon