Esher & Walton hardest hit by stealth tax rise as 6,950 new tax payers dragged into higher rate
- The Times reports on freezing of income tax threshold bands costing squeezed-middle households
- Dominic Raab Local Conservative MP criticised for voting to hike taxes 8 times in Parliament
The Times reported yesterday on new analysis by the Liberal Democrats, revealing that Esher & Walton is amongst the hardest hit parts of the country from the Government’s stealth tax rise which froze the higher rate tax threshold.
There are now 6,950 new higher rate taxpayers in Esher & Walton due to the broken Conservative promises on tax since the 2019 election.
The analysis shows that Esher & Walton had 18,550 higher rate taxpayers in 2020 but now, due to the Government's changes to tax, there are now 25,500 paying higher tax.
Of the worst hit, Esher & Walton ranks 2nd for the number of taxpayers at the higher rate/of the worst hit in the country.
The changes nationally mean there are a projected 5.5 million higher rate Income Tax payers in the tax year 2022 to 2023, which is a 44% increase compared to 2019 to 2020.
The Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Esher & Walton Monica Harding has criticised Dominic Raab MP for breaking the Tory election promise not to raise taxes. In this Parliament alone, Mr Raab has voted 8 times in favour of higher taxes on families and small businesses.
The latest analysis is based on figures provided by the Government in response to a Parliamentary Question tabled by Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson Sarah Olney MP, showing the number of higher rate taxpayers by constituency in 2019/20, the most recent year available.
Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate forEsher & Walton Monica Harding said:
“This will come as a hammer blow to local people who are struggling to keep up with spiralling bills.
“In the coming days it will be announced that energy bills will rise to over £3,000 a year, and these tax hikes will add more salt to the wound.
“It has been disappointing to see our local Conservative MP Mr Raab vote in favour of these tax hikes time and time again. Every tax hike hurts families, pensioners and businesses in Esher & Walton in the middle of a cost of living crisis.
ENDS
Notes to Editor
There are a projected 5.5 million higher rate Income Tax payers in tax year 2022 to 2023, which is a 43.9% increase compared to 2019 to 2020 (HMRC: 30 June 2020). The parliamentary written question and accompanying figures are available here. Liberal Democrat analysis and constituency breakdown is available here.
Methodology:
In response to a Written Parliamentary Question tabled by the Liberal Democrats, the Treasury provided its latest breakdown of higher rate taxpayers by parliamentary constituency. The spreadsheet provided by the Treasury contains higher rate taxpayers combined with additional rate taxpayers.
To filter out the additional rate taxpayers, we used HMRC table 2.2, which includes basic, higher and additional rate taxpayers in each UK region and country, for every financial year up to 2022-23.
For every region/country, we calculated the ratio of higher rate to additional rate taxpayers, and applied that to the Treasury’s constituency figures. This step gives us a constituency breakdown for just higher rate taxpayers in 2019-20.
We then shared the number of 2022-23 higher rate taxpayers for each region (taken from HMRC table 2.2) among parliamentary constituencies, based on the number of 2019-20 higher rate taxpayers in each constituency.
This gives us an estimated constituency breakdown of higher rate taxpayers in 2022-23.
Taxpayer numbers have been rounded to the nearest 50.
For more information please contact hello@elmbridgelibdems.org.uk