Fri, 1 Apr 2011

Osborne accused of ‘stealth’ tax

George Osborne is liable to accusations of a ‘stealth’ tax rise in changing the inflation measure to be used for future upratings of National Insurance contributions (NICs) thresholds. In last month’s Budget, the chancellor announced that from 2012 the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) will be used to uprate the point at which NICs become payable, rather than the Retail Prices Index (RPI). In recent years CPI has been lower than the RPI, which includes housing costs.