Tax and the Tories

You wait ages for a Tory tax pledge then a whole slew come along at once. Following his speech on Monday which pledged to raise the threshold for inheritance tax and cut stamp tax for first time buyers, George Osborne has given an interview to The Times announcing that there are both personal and corporate tax cuts to come, all of which will be funded by green tax rises.

Now, the Evening Standard is going big on the story that spouses will be able to transfer over any unused portion of their personal allowances—potentially saving families £1,000 a year. There does, though, seem to be some confusion about whether this is a possibility or if it is set to be announced as a firm policy commitment. Just now, a Tory spokesman told me that the idea mentioned in the Standard is just “one of the recommendations put to us by one of the policy groups.