Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

How to conjure up a £3,800 tax cut

It’s great to read David Cameron’s article in The Times today making the moral case for tax cuts. It’s tough for him to do so, given that his Chancellor has pushed back the date for balancing the books until 2018/19, a decade after the crash. But he has been doing some maths, which makes its way in to the Times splash:-

An average worker will pay £3,800 less income tax between 2015 and 2020 because of sweeping cuts made by the coalition and pledges in the next Tory manifesto, David Cameron has said.

Great news! £3,800 in the next parliament! A figure you can campaign on – except it is an illusion. Let’s look at what the PM said:-

In the next parliament, we will go further. We have made two clear commitments. First, we will raise the tax threshold again, so that nobody earning less than £12,500 will pay income tax. This represents the most progressive, poverty-attacking tax change in the postwar era: it will mean one million more low-paid workers will not have to pay income tax at all; and it means most basic-rate taxpayers will pay £3,800 less in tax over the next parliament compared with the Labour plans we inherited.

Can you see the trick? He uses the phrase ‘will pay £3,800 less in tax’ and then the caveat ‘compared with the Labour plans we inherited’. This is the political equivalent of saying ‘not!’. The Prime Minister is not talking about tax cuts at all. He is simply saying that he will not raise taxes as fast as he says Labour would have had the 2005 parliament lasted until 2020.

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