The Stealth Tax No One Told You About

Let's move on to the second thing, the stealth tax. Fiscal drag. So what's going to happen now? This is a big heavyweight punch. The freeze of the income threshold until 2031 is the biggest tax rise of the entire budget. Even though the tax rates haven't changed. But this is a stealth one. Nothing changed about the basic rate threshold is still the same, the higher rate threshold is still 40% and the personal allowance is still there. The hundred thousand pounds adjusted net income trigger is still there and the 60 tax trap hasn't moved. But those bands were already frozen until 2028. Since 2010 to 2028, now it's been frozen three extra years. And why this matters for doctors is because on healthcare professional, of course, your pay rises, your pension increases, you do extra shift on calls locums, you quietly being dragged into a higher tax band as you're earning a bit more and without the government ever saying we are raising taxes. This is why it's a stealth tax. It's been there from 2010 to, until now, 2020. So it's going to 2031. That will be 21 years. So the OBR has already said at least 1 million people are going to be paying, you know, taxes because of this. And about 920000 people will be dragged into the higher rate tax ban. In simple English, Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor will be very happy with the tax revenue. But this 1 million people won't be laughing to the banks like her.