£700 off income tax

11.40.00pm GMT Tue 1st Dec 2009

The Lib Dems propose cutting income tax for low and middle income earners.

The Liberal Democrats have put forward tax plans to help ordinary people. Anyone earning under £10,000 will pay no income tax. This means a tax cut of £700 for people on low and middle incomes - giving families the help they need. This tax cut will be paid for by closing tax loopholes exploited by big business and the rich.

Under Labour millions of people on low incomes are forced to pay income tax every year, keeping pensioners on the breadline. Even someone working full-time for minimum wage has hundreds of pounds a year taken in income tax.

Launching the new tax plan, Lib Dem Leader Nick Clegg said: "If you want to know how committed a government is to fairness then look at its tax system.

"Gordon Brown has created a tax regime that forces some of the lowest earners in society to pay hundreds of pounds in tax they can't afford, while polluters and rich tax dodgers avoid paying their fair share.

"Meanwhile the Conservatives want tax cuts for millionaires, but say there might be tax rises for everyone else.

"Under our plans people won't pay a penny on the first ten thousand pounds they earn. That would put £700 back in the pockets of the vast majority of tax payers, and take millions of people on low pay out of paying income tax altogether.

"Our plans represent the most radical, far reaching tax reform in a generation. They embody everything the Liberal Democrats stand for: fairness, protecting the environment, rewarding hard work.

"It is right to ask those with the broadest shoulders to bear a little more of the burden so that millions of people on normal earnings get the break they desperately need."