Mini Budget 22: Chancellor scraps 45% top rate of income tax for high earners

Basic rate of income tax cut to 19p

The government will scrap the 45% top rate of income tax for high earners, replacing it with a 40% rate in a bid to simplify the tax system and make the UK more competitive, Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng told the House of Commons today (23 September).

"The additional rate of income tax at 45% is currently higher than the headline top rate at G7 countries like the US and Italy, and it is even higher than social democracies like Norway," he told MPs.  "But I am not going to cut the additional rate of tax today, Mr Speaker, I am going to abolish it altogether. From April 2023, we will have a single higher rate of income tax of 40%. "This will simplify the tax system and make Britain more competitive and will reward enterprise and work. It will incentivise growth; it will benefit the whole economy and the whole country." Mini Budget...