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Closed Raise the standard tax-free Personal Allowance to £45,000

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The Personal Allowance is the amount of income a person can get before they pay tax. It stands at £12,570 in 2024. We would like the standard Personal Allowance raised to what we think is a more realistic figure of £45,000.

We think that the Personal Allowance, as termed by the government, has been kept unreasonably low for far too long, at the expense of the poorest, most needy people in our society.

We feel that the poorer majority should pay substantially less than the wealthy. We think that the tax system seems designed to make the divide between rich and poor increase exponentially.

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  • Petition closed

  • Related activity

    Original Government response

    The Government has not extended the last Government’s freeze on personal tax thresholds, meaning from April 2028 working people will keep more of their earnings as thresholds will rise by inflation.

    The previous Government made the decision to freeze the income tax Personal Allowance (PA) at its current level of £12,570 until April 2028. The current Government is committed to keeping taxes for working people as low as possible while ensuring fiscal responsibility and so, at our first Budget, we decided not to extend the freeze on personal tax thresholds. As a result, they will rise with inflation from April 2028, meaning working people will keep more of their earnings.

    Increasing the Personal Allowance to £45,000 would come at a significant fiscal cost of more than £270 billion per annum on average over the next three years (based on HMRC’s ready reckoners, published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/direct-effects-of-illustrative-tax-changes). This would reduce tax receipts substantially, decreasing funds available for the UK’s hospitals, schools, and other essential public services that we all rely on. It would also undermine the work the Chancellor has done to restore fiscal responsibility and economic stability, which are critical to getting our economy growing and keeping taxes, inflation, and mortgages as low as possible.

    The Government keeps all taxes under review as part of the policy making process. The Chancellor will announce any changes to the tax system at fiscal events in the usual way.

    HM Treasury

    This response was given on 14 January 2025. The Petitions Committee then requested a revised response, that more directly addressed the request of the petition.

  • Government responded to this petition

    The Government has not extended the last Government’s freeze on personal tax thresholds, meaning from April 2028 working people will keep more of their earnings as thresholds will rise by inflation.

    Read the response in full

    The previous Government made the decision to freeze the income tax Personal Allowance (PA) at its current level of £12,570 until April 2028. The current Government is committed to keeping taxes for working people as low as possible while ensuring fiscal responsibility and so, at our first Budget, we decided not to extend the freeze on personal tax thresholds. As a result, they will rise with inflation from April 2028, meaning working people will keep more of their earnings.

    The Government has no plans to increase the Personal Allowance to £45,000. Increasing the Personal Allowance to £45,000 would come at a significant fiscal cost of many tens of billions of pounds per annum. This would reduce tax receipts substantially, decreasing funds available for the UK’s hospitals, schools, and other essential public services that we all rely on. It would also undermine the work the Chancellor has done to restore fiscal responsibility and economic stability, which are critical to getting our economy growing and keeping taxes, inflation, and mortgages as low as possible.

    The Government keeps all taxes under review as part of the policy making process. The Chancellor will announce any changes to the tax system at fiscal events in the usual way.

    HM Treasury

    This is a revised response. The Petitions Committee requested a response which more directly addressed the request of the petition. You can find the original response towards the bottom of the petition page (https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/700391)

  • Related activity

    Petitions Committee requests a revised response from the Government

    The Petitions Committee (the group of MPs who oversee the petitions system) has considered the Government’s response to this petition. They felt the response did not respond directly to the request of the petition. They have therefore asked the Government to provide a revised response.

    When the Committee receives a revised response from the Government, we will publish this and share it with you.

  • Government will respond to this petition

    This petition got more than 10,000 signatures meaning that government will respond to it.

  • Petition published

    This petition can now be signed.

    If this petition gets 10,000 signatures, government will respond to it.

    If this petition gets 100,000 signatures, it will be considered for debate in Parliament.

    This petition will stay open until 26 May 2025.