Rachel Reeves tax grab exposed as ISA change means 2m to pay more | Politics | News


Rachel Reeves’s tax grab has been laid bare by an expert, who has revealed how many more people can expect to fork out more for the Treasury as a result of the Budget. Up to two million could end up paying more tax on their savings, they suggest, thanks to a levy on interest once they exceed the personal savings allowance, and if they continue to earn interest on savings outside an ISA. Continuing to save ยฃ20,000 annually will cost ยฃ264 in tax for basic-rate and ยฃ1,216 for higher-rate taxpayers over five years after the allowance is lowered from ยฃ20,000 to ยฃ12,000, from April 2027. Individuals aged 65 or above are exempt.

Andrew Prosser, Head of Investments at InvestEngine, said: โ€œOur analysis shows that almost 1.5million basic-rate taxpayers and just under half a million (462,000) higher-rate taxpayers deposited more than ยฃ12,000 into their Cash ISA in the last financial year. Now that the allowance has been cut down to ยฃ12,000, they will need to find somewhere else for this cash for anything over that amount.

If they were to put that ยฃ8,000 – the difference between ยฃ20,000 and the new ยฃ12,000 limit – into a 4.5% savings account, after five years, a basic-rate taxpayer will have lost around ยฃ264 in tax, while a higher-rate taxpayer could lose around ยฃ1,216, or ยฃ234 a year once their total savings interest exceeds the ยฃ500 allowance.โ€

InvestEngine research has resulted in the following figures:

Basic rate taxpayer (20%)

Year

Total held outside ISA

Annual interest (4.5%)

Taxable interest (beyond ยฃ1,000)

Tax due (20%)

Cumulative tax paid

1

ยฃ8,000

ยฃ360

ยฃ0

ยฃ0

ยฃ0

2

ยฃ16,000

ยฃ720

ยฃ0

ยฃ0

ยฃ0

3

ยฃ24,000

ยฃ1,080

ยฃ80

ยฃ16

ยฃ16

4

ยฃ32,000

ยฃ1,440

ยฃ440

ยฃ88

ยฃ104

5

ยฃ40,000

ยฃ1,800

ยฃ800

ยฃ160

ยฃ264

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