Business News 18 Feb 2013

Government could raise income tax allowance 'above £10,000'

Conservative Party chairman Grant Shapps has told the BBC that the Government might consider raising the starting point for paying income tax above the Coalition's stated target of £10,000.

From April this year, individuals will receive the first £9,440 of their income free of tax – a rate that Chancellor George Osborne has described as being within 'touching distance' of the £10,000 personal income tax allowance goal.

Now Mr Schapps' comments, made on BBC Radio 5 Live's Pienaar's Politics programme, have fuelled speculation that next month's Budget might see another rise in the threshold, and leave the Chancellor with two more Budgets – in 2014 and 2015 – in which to raise it up to or beyond the £10,000 mark.

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