UK Government Declines To Rule Out Future Tax Rate Hikes

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

24 April 2017

UK Prime Minister Theresa May has declined to confirm that her Government would maintain tax rates should it win the upcoming election.

In 2015, the ruling Conservative Party, which is ahead in polls, promised before that year's election that income tax and value-added tax rates and National Insurance (social security) contributions would not be increased.

Asked whether the Party's manifesto would be extended to a potential next term for the Conservative Party, she said: "At this election, people are going to have a very clear choice," she said. "They will have a choice between a Conservative Party, which always has been, is, and will continue to be a party that believes in lower taxes... [or] a Labour party whose natural instinct is always to raise taxes."

Last week, May called a snap election, to be held in June, saying that the move would put the UK in a stronger position in the two-year Brexit negotiations.

Earlier this year, the Government abandoned plans announced in the Budget to increases taxes for the self-employed, following criticism from senior Tories that the measure reneged on the Party's 2015 manifesto pledge.

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