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According to the Labour Party, there is a ‘black hole’ in public finances left unaccounted for by the previous government to the tune of £22 billion.

New legislation introduced this year makes it illegal for employers to withhold tips from their staff, overhauling gratuity practices to ensure that from 1st October 2024 workers can keep 100% of the money they have earned in the form of tips and service charges.

The threshold for repaying student loans in England and Wales, which determines the amount of money a graduate can earn annually before they must begin repaying their university loans, has been frozen at £25,000 until the 2027 tax year.

HMRC is known to send ‘nudge letters’ to taxpayers who may have undeclared taxable income – from online trading or sales suppression, for example – encouraging recipients to contact the tax agency and provide more information about their earnings.

Dividend income, which is paid to company shareholders, is taxed like most other forms of income – but there is also an annual tax-free allowance for dividends.

While this allowance was cut from £5,000 a year in 2018, it remained at £2,000 a year until 2022, after which it has been gradually reduced year on year – dropping to £1,000 in 2023 and halving again to £500 from April 2024.

In the Labour Party’s latest manifesto, the party pledged not to increase National Insurance, Income Tax, or VAT to avoid higher taxes for working people.

However, Capital Gains Tax (CGT) was not mentioned in this pledge, with Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves receiving many questions about this omission yet providing no definite answer about Labour’s plans for CGT.

This led to predictions about a possible increase in CGT, which is a tax levied on profits earned from the sale of property, shares, or other assets.