Mr Brown attracted criticism for introducing "stealth taxes". At least Alistair Darling was open about it: the top rate of income tax will go up from 40% to 50% on 6 April 2010 for people earning over £150,000 a year. There are still hangovers from the Brown approach, though: the rules are more complicated than they surely need to be, with personal allowances to be taken away from those earning £100,000 a year, different rates for dividends and for other income, and the impact of NIC on earnings but not on anything else. So it will be possible next year to have a marginal tax rate of 61% if your income is just over £100,000, and it is likely to be 51% if you earn more than £150,000.
This was one of the Chancellor's more popular Budget moves - popular, that is, with people who earn less than £100,000. If you are affected by the increases, or if you hope to earn more in the future, there are things you can legitimately do to reduce the impact. For example, you might want to earn a bit more this year, paying 40%, and a little less next year. Although you would pay the tax a year early, you would pay much less. We can suggest a number of ways to move taxable income from one year to another.
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