It is also scandalous that millions of people have been drawn into 40 per cent higher rate tax because of fiscal drag.
Experts forecast that one in five taxpayers will be paying income tax at 40 per cent or above by 2027. To put this into some kind of perspective, the equivalent figure for the tax year ending April 5 2023 was 11 per cent.
In terms of fairness, it would make great sense to shave insurance premium tax (IPT).
It is invidious that because of profit rebuilding by insurers, premiums for car, home and pet cover are reaching for the stratosphere, resulting in an IPT bonanza for the Treasury. It is time for the standard rate of 12 per cent to be given a haircut.
I imagine that any changes to the taxation of dividends and capital gains (and permitted tax-free annual allowances) will be off Hunt’s radar.
The £20,000 annual Isa allowance is unlikely to be touched, although there may be some simplification of the underlying regime, plus maybe an extra allowance for those prepared to back the faltering UK stock market.
Changes to tax relief on pension contributions will also be a no-go, although I imagine that Starmer will have them on his to-do list if (when) he wins the general election.
Of course, all this tax noise is about politics, not (necessarily) the greater good of the country.
As the Institute for Fiscal Studies reminded us recently, whatever rabbits Hunt pulls out of his hat in the Budget, they will probably have to be pushed back in pretty quickly after the general election (whoever then has control of the hat).
The next government, it said, faces the worst debt challenge since the 1950s. Any tax cuts now, it warned, would simply increase the risk of future tax rises further down the line, or vicious spending cuts.
The only bright spot for financial advisers is that they (you) will be working overtime in the weeks and months ahead, busily advising clients on how to protect their finances and wealth from a tax-heavy regime, both pre and post-election.
Jeff Prestridge is group wealth and personal finance editor at DMGT
