The facts on taxes (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

The facts on taxes

8:45am Thursday 23rd February 2012 in Readers' letters By Telegraph & Argus

SIR – When Labour Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls calls for tax cuts, etc, who does he think he is kidding?

The last Labour Government raised taxes of every kind relentlessly for both the hard-working families and OAPs of this country to provide ever more lavish benefits for the feckless and idle.

Income tax for the lowest paid and retired doubled from ten to 20 per cent, council tax also doubled in ten years, while the Coalition have frozen it for two years in a row.

Vehicle Excise Duty, a crippling burden for OAPs like me with an old car doing very few miles, went up 14 per cent in Labour’s final Budget of April 2010, that on top of a permanent 2.5 per cent rise in fuel duty to cancel out their temporary VAT reduction.

Also, if Labour is so concerned about the PAYE tax-free allowance for the low-paid, why did they not make the minimum wage the starting point for payment of tax, instead of forcing, say, part-time workers doing just 20 hours a week to suffer income tax?

At least the Coalition has ended that iniquity, already with more in the pipeline.

D S Boyes, Rodley Lane, Leeds