Tax Policy

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 2:12 pm on 26 October 2022.

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Photo of Rebecca Evans Rebecca Evans Labour 2:12, 26 October 2022

Well, Llywydd, we do have the Welsh rates of income tax ready reckoner, which was published in 2021, so it's there for all colleagues to be looking at and using. It's available on the Welsh Government's website, and that does show the effects of changes to the Welsh rates of devolved income tax revenue. So, you're able to play around with it and look at different things. But, just for clarity, the basic rate of income tax for next year, if we were to raise or lower it by 1p, that would have an impact of £220 million; for the higher rate, it would be £33 million; and the additional rate, £5 million. And, of course, there will potentially be behavioural impacts. We don't have a very clear view of what the behavioural impacts would be; those behavioural impacts, I think, would probably only come into play in the additional rate, in any case, because those people tend to be people who are potentially more mobile and who would have different options in terms of structuring their tax affairs. But, of course, I know that the former Finance Committee did an interesting piece of work that did look at the potential of people moving across borders to avoid an increase in additional rates of income tax. So, all of that information is available, and I do commend the ready reckoner to colleagues who want to find out a bit more about what the implications of different choices might be. But, I should say that any choice that we make will be announced alongside our draft budget on 13 December.