UK Stealth Tax Set to Push 5 Million More Into Bands Over 40%

Some 5.4 million workers will have been pushed into higher tax brackets of between 40% and 45% by the start of the next decade after Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves extended a policy of freezing income thresholds.

The Labour chancellor announced that the long-running freeze on personal tax thresholds will last for an extra three years, meaning they won’t be increased to keep pace with the rate of inflation. The so-called fiscal drag — dubbed by critics a “stealth tax raid” — continues a tactic used by Reeves’ Conservative predecessors to avoid the political backlash of actually raising tax ...