Key tax pledges in the manifestos - UK election 2019

Ahead of the upcoming general election this week, here is a roundup of the key taxation pledges from the three main political parties manifesto's. This list is not limited to the below, please see the full manifesto's by clicking on the name of the party below. 

Conservative/ DUP

• Freeze previously scheduled corporation tax cuts, keeping 19% rate in place 
• No increases to income tax, VAT or NICs with NICs threshold raised to £9,500 next year from current threshold of £8,632 
• Increase SDLT rate by 3% for overseas buyers 
• Reform the UK’s corporate governance regime, including insolvency rules and audit regime 
• Strengthen powers of Small Business Commissioner to tackle late payment 
• Increase R&D tax credit rate to 13% 
• Implement the proposed digital services tax, placing a 2% tax on revenues generated by digital services 
• Increase the employment allowance for small firms – a discount on national insurance payments 
• Review and reform Entrepreneurs Relief 
• Invest in a singular, ‘beefed-up’ Anti-Tax Evasion Unit within HMRC

Labour

• Reverse recent corporation tax cuts – with return to 26% headline rate by 2022 with a small profits rate for those with turnover under £300,000 p/a
• Introduce additional income tax rate of 45% from £80,000 
• Raise property taxes for overseas buyers 
• Corporate groups under common ownership with offshore entities to become ‘unitary enterprises’ which require profits to be reported in the jurisdiction where economic activity occurs 
• Bring Capital Gains and dividend taxes into line with income tax rates with de-minimis exemption thresholds of £1000 
• Abolish the lower income tax rate for dividend income 
• Freeze VAT rates 
• Scrap Entrepreneurs Relief and consult on better forms of support 
• Full review of effectiveness of corporate tax reliefs

Liberal Democrats

• Restore Corporation Tax to 20% 
• Capital Gains Tax to be brought into line with Income Tax by abolishing the separate Capital gains tax-free allowance and creating a single allowance 
• Allow companies to claim R&D tax credits against cost of purchasing datasets and cloud computing
  
• Scrap Marriage Allowance
• Increase Digital Services Tax rate from 2% to 6%
• Levy on tobacco companies to fund health care 
• Provide tax support to promote creative industries. 
• Introduce ‘compulsory levy’ on gambling firms 
• Enable local authorities to bring in tourist levies
  
• Support/build on OECD proposals to require multinationals to pay tax more closely related to sales in every country they operate
  
• End Loan Charge Scheme and review IR35 rules