2008/09 tax year
The numbers revealed
The personal allowance paid to everyone up to 65 rises by £210 from £5,225 to £5,435
The allowance for people aged 65 to 74 rises by £1,480 from £7,550 to £9,030. This above-inflation increase is compensation for the withdrawal of the 10 per cent starter tax rate from this April
The allowance for those over 75 also increases by more than inflation for the same reason by £1,490 from £7,690 to £9,180
The earnings level where the higher allowances paid to older people starts to be withdrawn rises by £900 from £20,900 to £21,800
Married couples where at least one person was born before 6 April 1935 see their allowances rise by £250 from £6,285 to £6,535, with marginally more when one partner is at least 75. This is paid at 10 per cent, with better-off older couples receiving a 10 per cent allowance on £2,540, £100 more, so they are £10 a year wealthier
The very highly paid will be able to invest £235,000 in pension plans in 2008/09, a £10,000 increase
National Insurance starts this year at £105 a week (£5,460 a year), up £5 a week. Salary earners pay 11 per cent up to £770 a week (£40,040 a year), £100 a week more than last year. This reflects planned income tax changes and should leave, according to the government, people no worse off. Beyond that, employed people pay 1 per cent
The self-employed will pay National Insurance at 8 per cent of profits between £5,435 and £40,040 in 2008/09, with the 1 per cent surcharge after that. They also have to pay a £2.30 a week ‘stamp’, a 10p a week increase
The basic state pension rises by £3.40 from £87.30 to £90.70 a week for a single person and increases by £5.45 from £139.60 to £145.05 for a couple. The pension credit, the means-tested minimum income level for retired people on state benefits, rises by £5 from £119.05 to £124.05 for a single person and by £7.65 from £181.70 to £189.35 for a couple
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Levels and bases of, and reliefs from, taxation are subject to change.
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