Latest news with #marriageallowance
Telegraph
28-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Farage isn't the first leader to promise tax breaks for couples. They all failed
In 2015, then-prime minister David Cameron introduced a marriage allowance letting one spouse transfer £1,260 of their personal allowance to the other, although this is not a significant tax break – saving only up to £252 in tax per year. To claim the benefit, the lower earner must have an income below the personal allowance and the higher earner must be a basic-rate taxpayer. Across the Atlantic, Donald Trump has promised a $1,000 'baby bonus' in the hope of boosting the birth rate. But such policies have had mixed success. Some experts question whether financial giveaways are the best way to support young families, although other countries such as South Korea and Hungary have successfully used tax reforms to increase the birth rate. Jason Hollands, of the stockbroker Bestinvest, said: 'Bolstering the tax benefits of being married might play a part in addressing this but needs to be considered against other options to help people have larger families, such as making childcare more affordable.'
Telegraph
27-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Farage to promise tax breaks for married couples
Nigel Farage will promise tax breaks for married couples in a major speech today as he looks to position Reform UK as the true opposition to Labour. The Reform leader will attack Sir Keir Starmer and seek to outflank the Prime Minister on welfare with pledges to scrap the two-child benefit cap and fully reinstate winter fuel payments for every pensioner. Mr Farage will also announce his party's intention to introduce a new transferable marriage tax allowance in an attempt to encourage people to have more children. The allowance, first reported by The Mail, would see one spouse made exempt from paying tax on the first £25,000 they earn. Reform has already promised to lift the starting threshold for paying income tax to £20,000. Mr Farage will reportedly warn the collapsing birth rate in the UK represents 'an existential crisis for our country' and his party will 'do everything in its power to encourage British people who are able and want kids to have them'.
