CONFERENCE NEWS: CABLE SETS OUT TAX PLANS
September 22, 2009 9:51 AM
The Liberal Democrats will prioritise cutting income tax for those on low and middle incomes if they win power, says Vince Cable.
In a keynote address to the Liberal Democrat conference in Bournemouth, Cable, the party's Treasury spokesman and deputy leader, said he still backs a "small annual levy" on properties worth more than £1m.
"We have seen the super-rich pouring their money not into job creating businesses but into acquiring mansions," he said.
"And remember too that under our unfair council tax Messrs Mittal and Abramovich in their £30m palaces pay the same as a band H family home though their properties may be worth 40 or 50 times as much.
"That small levy alone would lift 300,000 low paid workers and pensioners out of tax."
Cable said "civil service bonuses and the culture of massively inflated salaries" must be tackled and there should be a freeze in the total pay bill rather than cuts in services.
"There is no need for the vast central government databases, like the ID card, the so called 'super database' and the NHS scheme," he said.
"Tax credits extend too far up the income scale.
"There are too many unaffordable defence commitments and procurement contracts including new Trident submarines.
"Civil service mandarins - and MPs - enjoy very generous subsidised public sector pensions which desperately need reform."
Cable said that it would be "dishonest and unbelievable" to claim that taxes overall should never rise.
"The Liberal Democrats' starting point is to aim for fairer not higher taxes," he told conference.
"I would do this by lifting tax thresholds, providing an incentive to work and to save."
He advocated lifting the income tax threshold to £10,000 to benefit four million low paid workers and pensioners.
Cable warned a fringe meeting at the Liberal Democrat conference on Sunday that the Conservatives could raise VAT to as much as 25 per cent if they formed the next government.
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