Jeremy Hunt

Autumn budget 2022: The government will maintain the current freeze on income tax personal allowance and higher-rate tax thresholds until April 2028.

Chancellor of the exchequer Jeremy Hunt told the House of Commons that personal tax thresholds, including income tax, will be frozen for further two years until 2028.

Sian Steele, head of tax at wealth management and professional services firm Evelyn Partners, added: “The consequences of this sort of stealth tax are becoming better and more widely understood so these moves might provoke more uneasiness among taxpayers than the Chancellor was hoping for. In particular, the freezing of the personal allowance and higher-rate threshold for income tax will impact those on low and medium incomes.

“The personal allowance is less of an issue for the highest earners, for whom it starts to disappear from the £100,000 mark onwards. But for them, the threshold at which individuals pay tax at 45% has been reduced to £125,140. While it might satisfy some demands for fairness, measures like these will not go far enough towards funding the public finances gap unless economic growth comes to the rescue by boosting tax revenues, a prospect that currently looks remote. So, it would not be surprising if further tax announcements arrive next year in a full spring budget.”