TAX CUTS IN BRITAIN

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27639, 21 April 1955, Page 13

TAX CUTS IN BRITAIN

Butler Budgets For Surplus (N.Z. Press right) (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, April 20. British income tax dropped to its lowest figure for 15 years yesterday, when the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr R. A. Butler) announced his annual Budget to a Parliament preparing to fight a General Election next month. The Chancellor also cut purchase tax on cotton and rayon goods by half in an effort to aid the nation’s textile industry, now languishing under foreign competition. these conce ssions, which will cost the Exchequer £158,1)00,000 in a year, the Chancellor estimated that he will still show a surplus of £148,000,000. Mr Butler’s most spectacular concession cut sixpence off the standard rate of income tax, making it now 8s 6d in the £. Be also cut threepence off lower rates of taxation, increased the tax-free allowance for a single person from £l2O to £l4O and from £2lO to £240 for a married couple, and raised the allowance for each child from £B5 to £lOO.