Tax & the money you keep: where the UK parties stand
How much of what I earn do I get to keep?
Independent, source-checked analysis of how each party’s policies would affect this — judged on the evidence, without telling the system who proposed them. How this works.
Labour — 2 policies affect this: 1 little effect · 1 hurts. Compare interactively →
Close Tax Loopholes and Modernise HMRC — hurts. This policy raises taxes on a narrow group — non-doms, offshore trust users, and private equity managers — so most households see no change to their take-home pay. Those affected face a higher tax bur…
Reduce Household Costs and Support Families — little effect. The policy promises not to raise Income Tax, National Insurance, or VAT, which protects current take-home pay from getting worse — but it does not cut any of these taxes or increase what households ac…
Conservative — 9 policies affect this: 6 helps · 3 little effect. Compare interactively →
Cut Employee National Insurance — helps. Cutting employee National Insurance from 12% to 6% would directly raise take-home pay for employed workers, with the policy's own figure of £1,350 a year for an average earner — though independent ana…
Abolish Self-Employed National Insurance — helps. Self-employed workers earning above the profits threshold would keep significantly more of their income — around £1,350 a year for someone earning £35,000 — but the benefit only arrives fully by 2029 …
Introduce Triple Lock Plus for Pensioners — helps. The Triple Lock Plus would raise the pensioner personal allowance in line with the highest of inflation, earnings, or 2.5%, preventing the State Pension from being taxed and giving around 8 million ta…
Reform Child Benefit Household Income Threshold — helps. This policy raises the point at which families start losing Child Benefit to a combined household income of £120,000, meaning over 700,000 households would keep more money — an average of £1,500 a yea…
Pensions Tax Guarantee — helps. This policy locks in existing pension tax reliefs — the 25% tax-free lump sum, marginal-rate contribution relief, and the NI exemption on employer contributions — so savers face no new reduction in ta…
Liberal Democrat — 5 policies affect this: 2 helps · 2 hurts · 1 mixed. Compare interactively →
Raise Income Tax Personal Allowance — helps. Raising the personal allowance would cut income tax for most earners, increasing take-home pay — but the policy is conditional on public finances allowing it, has no committed level or timetable, and …
Reform Capital Gains Tax — hurts. Reforming CGT to close loopholes and raise revenue would increase the tax burden on people with capital gains, reducing their take-home returns — but this is heavily concentrated among the very wealth…
End Retrospective Tax Changes and Review IR35 — helps. Ending the loan charge would reduce tax bills for a specific group of contractors and freelancers who face large retrospective demands, improving their take-home pay. The IR35 part is only a review wi…
Local Authority Powers to Control Second Homes and Short-Term Lets — hurts. This policy raises council tax by up to 500% on second homes and adds a stamp duty surcharge for overseas buyers of such properties, directly reducing take-home value for those affected. The tax incre…
Reform Taxation of International Flights and Introduce Private Jet Super Tax — mixed. Most ordinary households who fly occasionally could see lower air-travel taxes, while frequent flyers, business/first-class passengers, and private jet users would face higher costs. The net effect de…
Reform UK — 16 policies affect this: 14 helps · 2 mixed. Compare interactively →
Reform the BBC and scrap the TV licence — helps. Scrapping the TV licence would save the roughly 28.7 million licensable households £180 a year each, directly reducing a mandatory household charge. The catch is that the policy does not specify a rep…
Raise income tax threshold to £20,000 — helps. Raising the income tax threshold to £20,000 and the higher-rate threshold to £70,000 would give most workers a meaningful tax cut — around £1,500 a year for basic-rate payers and up to £5,500 for high…
Cut energy taxes — helps. This policy cuts fuel duty, scraps VAT on energy bills, and removes environmental levies, reducing the household tax burden — with the policy itself claiming savings of over £500 a year. However, the …
Cut residential stamp duty — helps. This policy cuts stamp duty to zero for homes below £750,000, directly reducing the upfront tax bill for most buyers. However, evidence suggests a significant share of the saving may be captured by se…
Abolish inheritance tax for estates under £2 million — helps. This policy would abolish inheritance tax for roughly 98% of estates, meaning most families would keep more of what they inherit. The gains are real but heavily skewed toward wealthier estates, with a…
Green — 6 policies affect this: 3 hurts · 3 mixed. Compare interactively →
Introduce a wealth tax and reform capital gains and inheritance taxes — hurts. This package of tax changes would reduce the money kept by higher earners, large capital gains recipients, and the very wealthy — the vast majority of ordinary households would be unaffected. For thos…
Bring academies and free schools into local authority control and reform private school status — hurts. Charging VAT on private school fees directly increases the cost for households paying those fees, reducing the money they keep. The hit is real but falls only on the roughly 7% of pupils in private sc…
Improve public transport, phase out fossil fuel vehicles, and reduce aviation — hurts. This policy introduces several new taxes and charges — restoring fuel-duty rises, road pricing, a frequent-flyer levy, and a carbon tax on aviation — that would reduce household take-home pay, especia…
Reform property taxes towards a Land Value Tax — mixed. Revaluing Council Tax bands would cut bills for most households — especially lower-income ones — but raise them for owners of high-value properties; removing business rate reliefs raises costs for bus…
Increase business taxes and clamp down on tax avoidance — mixed. This package mostly hits businesses and high earners rather than ordinary households directly, but two VAT changes pull in opposite directions: cutting VAT on hospitality and arts saves consumers mone…