National Insurance will be cut for 29 million workers, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced in his Autumn Statement.
Separately, the Scottish government – which decides its own income tax policy – has announced a new 45% rate for people earning between £75,000 and £125,140.
What is National Insurance?
NI is the second biggest source of money for the government and the rules apply across the whole of the UK.
For employees, it is similar to income tax. A fixed percentage of the money you earn is deducted from your wages. Employers also have to pay NI contributions (NICs).
Eligibility for certain benefits including the state pension depends on the amount of NICs you have made.
How is National Insurance changing?
From 6 January 2024, 27 million workers will pay 10% on their earnings between £12,571 and £50,270 instead of the current 12%.
Mr Hunt said the cut is worth £450 a year to a worker earning £35,400.
He also announced two changes to NI for the UK’s two million self-employed people.
From 6 April 2024, they will pay 8% on their profits between £12,571 and £50,270, down from 9% at the moment. The government says the cut will be worth £350 a year for an average self-employed person earning £28,200.
From the same date, self-employed people will no longer have to pay a separate category of NI called Class 2 contributions.
The chancellor said this would save the average self-employed person £192 a year, without damaging their NI contributions record or benefits entitlement.
NI on income and profits above £50,270 will remain at 2%.
NI is not paid by people over state pension age even if they are still working.
What is happening to National Insurance thresholds?
As wages rise, more people will have to pay NI for the first time.
That is because the chancellor has frozen the level of income at which you start paying NI, known as the threshold – currently £12,570.
Thresholds used to rise every year, typically in line with inflation. But the chancellor has said they will remain unchanged until April 2028.
Why are millions paying more income tax?
How much income tax you pay also depends on thresholds: the levels of income at which people either start paying tax, or have to pay higher rates of tax.
These are also being frozen until 2028, so the tax-free personal allowance will remain at £12,570. Most taxpayers do not pay any tax on income below this level.
The point at which higher tax rates take effect will also not change.
As with NI, as wages rise, more people will have to start paying tax, and more people will have to pay higher rates of tax, increasing their overall tax bill.
The freezes will create 3.2 million extra taxpayers by 2028, and 2.6 million more people will pay higher rates of tax. That’s according to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) – which independently assesses the government’s economic plans.
The Resolution Foundation think tank says previously announced increases of £90bn mean that taxes will rise by the equivalent of £4,300 per household between 2019-20 and 2028-29.
The OBR said “the combination of higher inflation and frozen tax thresholds means that the tax burden is going up “to its highest level in the post-war era”.
It predicts that families’ household disposable income will be 3.5% lower in 2024-25 than it was before the pandemic. It said this was “the largest reduction in real living standards since Office for National Statistics records began in the 1950s”.
What are the current rates of income tax?
You pay income tax to the government on earnings from employment and profits from self-employment.
Income tax is also due on some benefits and pensions, the money you get from renting out property, and returns from savings and investments above certain limits.
The basic rate of income tax is 20% and is paid on earnings between £12,571 and £50,270 during the tax year, which runs from 6 April to 5 April the following year.
The higher rate of income tax is 40%, and is paid on earnings between £50,271 and £125,140.
Once you earn more than £100,000 a year, you also start losing your tax-free personal allowance. This means you have to pay income tax of 40% on some of the first £12,570 of your earnings.
You lose £1 of your personal allowance for every £2 that your income goes above £100,000. So if you earn more than £125,140 a year, you no longer get any tax-free personal allowance.
The additional rate of income tax is 45%, and is paid on all earnings above £125,140 a year.
These rates apply in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
How is tax different in Scotland?
Some income tax rates are different in Scotland because of powers devolved to the Scottish Parliament.
These are the Scottish income tax rates from April 2023:
- Tax-free personal allowance: £12,570 (reduced by £1 for every £2 earned above £100,000)
- Starter rate of 19%: £12,571 to £14,732
- Scottish basic rate of 20%: £14,733 to £25,688
- Intermediate rate of 21%: £25,689 to £43,662
- Higher rate of 42%: £43,663 to £125,140
- Top rate of 47%: above £125,140
In December, the Scottish government announced it will introduce a new “advanced” rate of 45% for those earning between £75,000 and £125,140. The top rate of tax will also increase to 48%.
- Tax-free personal allowance: £12,570 (reduced by £1 for every £2 earned above £100,000)
- Starter rate of 19%: £12,571 to £14,876
- Scottish basic rate of 20%: £14,877 to £26,561
- Intermediate rate of 21%: £26,562 to £43,662
- Higher rate of 42%: £43,663 to £75,000
- Advanced rate of 45%: £75,001 to £125,140
- Top rate of 48%: above £125,140
The Scottish government estimates that 114,000 people will pay the new advanced tax rate, with a further 40,000 people paying the top rate for those earning more than £125,000.
Who pays most in income tax?
For most families in the UK, income tax is the single biggest tax they pay. You can see that in the dark green bars in the chart below.
But poorer households tend to pay a bigger share of their taxes through taxes on the money they spend such as VAT and duties, rather than the money they earn. These “indirect taxes” are shown in the blue areas in each bar.
For the poorest fifth of households, VAT is the biggest single tax paid.
How high are UK taxes historically?
One way of measuring how high taxes are is to consider the amount of tax raised as a proportion of the size of the economy.
At the time of the Autumn Statement, the OBR said that despite the changes made, that measure: “still rises in each of the next five years to a post-war high of 38% of GDP”.
How do UK taxes compare with other countries?
If you look at the amount of tax raised as a proportion of the size of the economy in 2021 – the most recent year for which international comparisons can be made – the figure was 33.5%.
That puts the UK right in the middle of the G7 group of big economies.
France, Italy and Germany tax more, Canada, Japan and the US tax less.
