UK to reverse payroll tax increase from Nov 6

BRITISH Finance Minister Kwasi Kwarteng said on Thursday (Sep 22) that a 1.25 percentage point increase in payroll tax which came into force earlier this year would be reversed from Nov 6.

Kwarteng is due to make a fiscal statement on Friday, effectively a mini budget, which is expected to set out new Prime Minister Liz Truss’ pro-growth agenda following her election as leader of the Conservative Party earlier this month.

Kwarteng also said the government would cancel plans to separate out the National Insurance increase and rename it as the Health and Social Care Levy, due to come into force in April 2023.

He would also scrap increases to dividend tax rates from April 2023.

“Taxing our way to prosperity has never worked. To raise living standards for all, we need to be unapologetic about growing our economy,” Kwarteng said in a statement.

During the campaign to replace former leader Boris Johnson, Truss had made clear her intention to reverse the national insurance rise, which had been introduced as a way to fund a health system struggling to cope with backlogs caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. REUTERS