How the Treasury could sell its tax cuts to voters

One of the big challenges for the government in tomorrow’s Budget is how well the Number 10 machine is able to sell some of the positive measures that George Osborne will announce. Some are easy for voters to notice: cancelling the fuel duty rise, for instance. But others, like the personal tax allowance, need a bit more noise.

One Tory backbencher is currently trying to push an idea to the Treasury about how to do this: tell voters every time they get paid. Justin Tomlinson, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Personal Finance, will raise his idea in the post-Budget debate in the House of Commons on Thursday. Every payslip would tell an employee whether the government has made changes to their tax arrangements, and how much more or less they’re getting in pay as a result. Tomlinson tells Coffee House:

‘I very much support raising the personal tax allowance, but we should tell people that they have benefitted from these changes too.