Darling to raise taxes for wealthy Alistair Darling, chancellor, is to target the wealthy with a new top rate of tax to help pay down soaring government borrowing, as he prepares to unveil a £12.5bn VAT cut to encourage Britain to shop its way out of recession. Mr Darling will announce plans for a new 45p top tax rate to be set at about £150,000 a year, to be introduced after the next election. He accepts that a tight squeeze on public spending alone will not plug the hole in the government's finances. Although the new tax would only raise several billion pounds a year, it breaches a central "new Labour" tenet of not putting up income tax or penalising the wealthy. It also opens up potentially sharp dividing lines between Labour and the Tories at the next general election. David Cameron, Tory leader, now faces a difficult choice of whether or not to support the mooted tax rise.
Alistair Darling, chancellor, is to target the wealthy with a new top rate of tax to help pay down soaring government borrowing, as he prepares to unveil a £12.5bn VAT cut to encourage Britain to shop its way out of recession.
Mr Darling will announce plans for a new 45p top tax rate to be set at about £150,000 a year, to be introduced after the next election. He accepts that a tight squeeze on public spending alone will not plug the hole in the government's finances.
Although the new tax would only raise several billion pounds a year, it breaches a central "new Labour" tenet of not putting up income tax or penalising the wealthy. It also opens up potentially sharp dividing lines between Labour and the Tories at the next general election. David Cameron, Tory leader, now faces a difficult choice of whether or not to support the mooted tax rise.
