Guess who said:
The 10p rate is very important because it’s a signal about the importance we attach about getting people into work and it’s of most importance to the low paid.
So prizes, as it’s Budget day, for working out that it was the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, back in 1999 – when he introduced the 10p starting rate of tax, replacing the previous lower rate of 20p.
Today he announced that he would be replacing the 10p rate with a 20p rate. How far we have come…
I think its a good thing, I should get more money in my pocket now. As a single white male I pay a lot of my money to the government and take well I take nothing back, yes thats nothing. So Im paying for everyone’s kids and the elderly and just about everything and get no breaks at all!
That’d be fine if it was a 2p cut on its own – I (someone earning almost exactly the median wage) would gain three times as much. As it is, though, I’ll get back a tiny fraction of what I currently pay because Brown quietly doubled the tax rate on £2,000 of my taxable earnings while loudly cutting it by 10% on the rest.