| Labour | Conservative | Lib Dem | Green | UKIP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gross Income | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 |
| Pension Deductions | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 |
| Taxable Income | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 |
| Tax | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 |
| National Insurance | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 |
| Student Loan | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 |
| Take-Home | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 |
2015 Election Comparison Calculator
During the 2015 UK General Election, the major political parties produced details of their proposals for personal taxation. This calculator allows you to compare the results for the different parties.
Note: These are estimated figures only, based on the limited information the parties have made available. More information below. If you can help provide more detailed information please let us know.
Notes on the Election Comparison Calculator
The Election Comparison Calculator uses the information made available by the parties to estimate what the impact on you of those policy changes would be. In a lot of cases, not all of the details are available (for example, changes to tax bands or tax rates). The current rates and bands have been used, unless the party's policy specifies new thresholds. Since tax bands usually increase in line with inflation, it should be expected that by the next budget these would change but this information is not yet available.
Not all of the parties have made specific policy statements about every area of income tax / national insurance / pensions. The Election Comparison Calculator assumes that if no policy statement on a subject has been made by the party, no change would be made by them in their next budget. This means that the blind person's allowance and student loan repayments are the same across the board, as well as the reduction of the personal allowance for those earning over £100,000. Details of the general information used by the calculator are on the page about The Salary Calculator. Party-specific details are below:
PAYE tax / NI contributions are not the only way that the government can gather revenue, and they are not the only ways in which the parties' tax policies differ. Inheritance tax, VAT, corporation tax and many other variables will be debated during the election campaign but they are not relevant to this calculator and are thereforee not included. This may mean that although you may think you would be better off under a certain party, other tax changes recommended by that party may have a negative effect on your total disposable income.
The BBC have put together a useful guide which summarises the major parties' positions on Taxation (as well as other policies).
Labour
The Labour manifesto says that they will increase the 45% tax rate on those earning over £150,000 to 50%, returning it to where it was when they were last in power. They also say they will introduce a starting rate of tax of 10%, but no information has been provided about the thresholds to which it would apply. To pay for this lower tax rate, they would remove the Married Tax Allowance.
They also say they would raise the Minimum Wage from £6.50 to "more than" £8 / hour - this does not affect the calculations above.
Resources:
Conservatives
The Conservatives have said that they will increase the tax-free personal allowance from £10,600 to £12,500 over the course of the next parliament, as well as increasing the threshold at which the 40% tax threshold is introduced from £42,385 to £50,000.
They say they would make the Minimum Wage "over" £8 / hour, from its current position of £6.50. They also specify that they would raise it this coming Autumn to £6.70. This is not included in the calculations.
Resources:
- https://www.conservatives.com/manifesto
- https://www.conservatives.com/SecuringABetterFuture/MeaningfulJob.aspx
Liberal Democrats
The Lib Dems say they will increase the personal allowance to £12,500. They also say they will consider raises to the Minimum Wage and to the NI and Income Tax thresholds (effectively reducing the amount of tax due), but no details have been provided. They are also keen to introduce a "Mansion Tax" on houses worth more than £2m, and to increases taxes on corporations and "the wealthy".
Resources:
Green Party
The Green Party have said they would remove the upper threshold of employee's National Insurance (currently £42,385), where NI reduces from 12% to 2%. NI would be charged at 12% on ALL income over the lower threshold of £8,060. They would also increase the Additional Rate of income tax on income over £150,000 from 50% to 60%.
They also plan to increase the Minimum Wage to £10 / hour (currently £6.50 / hour) - this is not factored in to the calculator.
Resources:
- https://www.greenparty.org.uk/assets/files/manifesto/Green_Party_2015_General_Election_Manifesto.pdf
- http://policy.greenparty.org.uk/ec.html
UK Independence Party
There are a couple of discrepancies between UKIP's manifesto and their other policy documents. Their manifesto says they will increase the personal allowance to "at least" £13,000 - meaning you don't pay any income tax until you earn over this threshold. As well as the current 20% and 40% tax rates, they would introduce a 30% rate at £43,500 which would then give way to 40% at £55,000 (and 45% would stay in place at £150,000).
These are the values that the calculator uses, but some other documents of theirs say that the personal allowance would be £13,500 and the new tax rate would be 35%, on earnings between £42,285 and £55,000.
Resources:
