Budget 2024 calculator – see if you’re better or worse off after Rachel Reeves’ Autumn Statement
HOUSEHOLDS will be wondering how the Autumn Statement will impact their personal finances.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set out the government’s financial plan for the year today and it includes plans for spending and taxes.
Many were dealt blows to their wallet, including smokers who will see the price of a packet of cigarettes rise by the standard Retail Price Index (RPI) – a measure of inflation – plus 2%.
Those keen to buy a second home are also set to face difficulties as Reeves revealed that second-home buyers will face a stamp duty land tax surcharge rise of two percentage points.
This will take the charge to 5% starting tomorrow, October 31 and is hoped it will discourage established buyers and free up space for first-time homeowners.
Raids on inheritance tax also mean that bereaved families will be taxed on their deceased family members’ pensions.
But there were a few silver linings, including a freeze to fuel duty for the 15th consecutive year in a row.
Meanwhile, there will also be an increase in Carer’s Allowance to give cash to 60,000 more carers.
With this in mind, it is worth having an idea of how your finances could look in the year ahead.
Below you can use The Sun’s calculator to find out if you’ll be better or worse off.
The Sun’s Budget tax calculator, created tax by accountancy firm Blick Rothenberg, can help you work out how much tax you’ll be paying and what your take-home pay will be.
Information which is entered into the Blick Rothenberg tax calculator is used only to calculate your individual result and does not collect personal data.
The calculator is designed only to give you an indication of how the changes could impact your situation.
WATCH RACHEL REEVES ON NEVER MIND THE BALLOTS
By Ryan Sabey, Deputy Political Editor
RACHEL Reeves will be grilled in a special Budget edition of The Sun’s Never Mind The Ballots show today.
Our Political Editor Harry Cole will put the Chancellor on the spot shortly after she’s finished delivering her crucial address in the House of Commons.
It will be available to watch on thesun.co.uk, YouTube and Sun social channels at 5.30pm.
Topics will include her decision on whether to spare motorists a fuel duty rise, and the expected eye-watering tax rises she will impose.
Since its launch earlier this year, NMTB has cemented its place at the heart of British politics.
During the General Election campaign The Sun was the only print publisher to host back-to-back grillings of Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer.
Footage from The Election Showdown has been viewed over 15 million times.
NMTB has also featured interviews with ex-PMs Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, as well as senior politicians Nigel Farage, James Cleverly, Wes Streeting, Steve Reed and Bridget Phillipson
How to use the tax calculator
You’ll be asked to fill in some personal details like your age and if you’re married or have kids.
Fill in your annual salary and any other income you have, for example from a pension or investments, and you can get started understanding the difference you’ll pay in tax this year and next.
You will also be asked to fill in details about how many pints of beer or packets of cigarettes you buy each week.
This is to see how you will be impacted by tobacco and alcohol duty rises.
If you drive a car, you can also enter how much you pay for fuel to see how you will be impacted by hikes to fuel duty.
Fuel duty is set to rise by 7p next year, which would force the average driver to spend £175 more a year on petrol or diesel fuel.
It comes amid fears that in April next year, there is a chance that an annual rise in fuel duty will push up prices again.
It’s worth noting that the information entered into the Blick Rothenberg tax calculator may be used to produce aggregated trend analysis but will not be used to identify individuals or their personal circumstances.
BRITAIN’S MOST MEMORABLE BUDGETS
Today is the first Labour budget for 14 years – and the first ever to be delivered by a female Chancellor.
Brits are bracing for a raft of tax hikes as Rachel Reeves tries to plug the “£22billion black hole” she says she’s found in government accounts.
Here are five other budgets which have caused a stir over the years.
1979 – Geoffrey Howe, Conservative
Margaret Thatcher’s Chancellor Geoffrey Howe slashed both the top rate of income tax and the standard rate.
He also doubled VAT – shifting the tax burden from income to consumption in a huge change for Brits.
Howe also eased controls on foreign exchange in a bid to control inflation.
The budget signalled a massive break from the last Labour government and set the pattern for decades to come.
1988 – Nigel Lawson, Conservative
Nigel Lawson (dad to domestic goddess Nigella) massively slashed income tax again.
The deputy Commons speaker twice cleared the chamber amid noisy protests from Labour MPs slamming the tax cuts.
Lawson also set off a property bonanza by announcing an end to double mortgage tax relief for couples buying homes.
1993 – Norman Lamont, Conservative
In March 1993 the economy was still reeling from Black Wednesday, when the pound crashed out of the European exchange rate mechanism.
Lamont announced tax rises including VAT on domestic gas and electricity.
Later that year Lamont’s successor Ken Clarke froze personal tax allowance and brought in stealth taxes on insurance and plane passengers.
The Lamont and Clarke budgets marked the end of the Tories’s scything tax cuts – and set the stage for Labour’s return to office in 1997.
2002 – Gordon Brown, Labour
Brown raised national insurance by a penny on the pound to fund higher spending on the NHS.
The future PM had fretted over a possible backlash from voters who had re-elected Labour in 2001.
But he managed to pull off the largest rise in health spending in the history of the NHS.
2009 – Alistair Darling, Labour
Labour’s last budget before today came amid the credit crunch and soaring unemployment.
Darling ramped up taxes and borrowing in a bid to fill up draining Treasury coffers.
Tory leader David Cameron blasted Labour’s ‘utter mess’ – and was in power a year later.
2022 – Kwasi Kwarteng, Conservative
Kwarteng unveiled his economic package less than a month after becoming Liz Truss’s Chancellor.
Technically, it was a fiscal statement rather than a budget – but it turned out to be just as seismic.
Rising Tory star Kwarteng announced £45billion in tax cuts including a drop in all rates of income tax.
Markets took frights and the pound went into freefall before the Bank of England waded in to stop a run on UK pension funds.
Mortgage rates soared and Kwarteng was out of the job just three weeks later.