Election Tax Proposals – More Money for the NHS?

The various political parties have all made bold promises in the run up to the General Election about increased spending if elected and in particular providing extra funds for the NHS. Although many of the spending pledges will be funded out of increased borrowing, the parties have assumed that they can persuade voters that extra spending on the NHS should come from general taxation.

The Liberal Democrats policy would be to increase the rate of income tax by 1% to raise £35 billion a year for the NHS and social care. The Conservative and Labour parties propose to provide extra money for the NHS from corporation tax changes.

Corporation tax is scheduled to be reduced from 19% to 17% from 1 April 2020.  However, in a speech to the CBI on 18 November 2019 Boris Johnson announced that, if elected, the Conservative Party would keep the rate at 19% to provide an extra £6 billion for the NHS.

Despite Jeremy Corbyn telling the CBI that the Labour party is “not anti-business” the party have previously announced that they would reverse the recent cuts in corporation tax. Note that the rate of corporation tax was 28% back in 2010 at the end of the last Labour government.