Gummer’s personal statement should bring clarity to income taxes

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One of the Government’s three key areas of budget strategy is their plan to create a fairer, more efficient and simpler tax system. As part of this, from 2014 taxpayers are to receive a Personal Tax Statement.

Fri, 27 Apr 2012

One of the Government’s three key areas of budget strategy is their plan to create a fairer, more efficient and simpler tax system. As part of this, from 2014 taxpayers are to receive a Personal Tax Statement.

In his March budget speech, George Osborne explained that the HMRC already contact around half of all taxpayers each year. In the next tax year at the same time as receiving a change to their tax code or other letter from the treasury, some 20 million people will receive a statement about where their taxes go. The remaining taxpayers will be sent statements at a later date.

The statement will lay out the amount of income tax and national insurance the individual has paid, their average tax rates and the proportion of the tax they pay that is spent on the various services like education, welfare and healthcare. Statements won’t show items the nation is indirectly taxed like fuel.

The Ipswich Conservative MP Ben Gummer originally put the idea for the itemised document to Parliament back in January. But the idea isn’t completely new. A similar idea was trialed for a number of years while Gordon Brown was Chancellor. The then Labour Government sent out a general leaflet about details of the budget and the public spending figures.