HMRC sent 2,200 people aged over 90 their first ever self assessment tax return in the 2024-25 year, up from 1,000 in 2022-23. Can’t it at least wait for the card from the King?
The figures, dug out in Parliament by Shadow Paymaster General Harriett Baldwin, also show 1,500 people over 100 were sent a return to fill in. The tax taken from over-90s through self assessment jumped from £286 million to £461 million in two years. 6,100 pensioners filing for the first time were hit with £100 late filing fines…
Treasury minister Torsten Bell blamed the Tory threshold freeze – skipping over the fact that Rachel Reeves extended it by three years to 2030-31 at last year’s Budget. And Healey won’t lift it in today’s Budget either…
The OBR expects that between 2022-23 and 2030-31 the freeze will have brought 5.2 million more people into paying income tax, pushed 4.8 million more into the higher rate and 600,000 more into the additional rate. Pensioners aren’t spared: first-time returns sent to pensioners nearly doubled, from 17,600 to 33,600. If the trend holds, the Guido Fawkes Fiscal Resolution Foundation estimates that roughly 300,000 more pensioners will get their first tax return by 2030-31, about 25,000 of them over 90. Pop your dentures out and log into Making Tax Digital!
Robert Jenrick told a rally on Monday:
“They say Chancellors are either undertakers or bookies. This one is an ostrich – and when the Chancellor buries his head in the sand, the rest of us, we’re left staring at his you know what.”