21 million working people getting an extra £220 tax cut
Tycoon Tax raises FIVE times as much from the super-rich
The Liberal Democrats have ensured this is a budget for the millions not for the millionaires, delivering a £3.5billion tax cut to average working people.
That's why the biggest move in this Budget is a tax cut for ordinary workers, going further and faster towards the Liberal Democrat goal of making the first ten thousand pounds you earn tax-free. From the front page of our manifesto directly to the pockets of working people.
Thanks to Liberal Democracts, people working full time on the minimum wage, will have seen their income tax bill cut in half.
We have delivered on Nick Clegg's pledge to go further and faster on the personal tax allowance. This means that 21m basic rate taxpayers will get an extra £220 cut in their income tax bills and a further 840,000 people will be taken out of paying income tax altogether.
"The news from the Chancellor today that the Budget will include new measures to tackle stamp duty avoidance is extremely welcome.
"For far too long the wealthiest in society have been able to get away with avoiding thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of pounds. It is simply not right that average working people playing by the rules face high tax bills when buying a home, yet time and time again we are seeing the rich and famous use clever accounting to get away without paying.
"This announcement is a good strong sign that the Budget this week will deliver on key Liberal Democrat demands to ensure the main benefits got to those on low and middle incomes, and that it is a budget for the many not the few."
"Labour have found yet another new use for their bankers' bonus tax, a seemingly endless fund of money. But their proposals do not stand up to scrutiny.
"The Real Job Guarantee is a pale comparison to the Youth Contract launched by Nick Clegg and shows Labour still doesn't understand how the economy works.
"Just like with previous job schemes which Labour dreamt up while driving the economy towards a cliff edge, Ed's plan does not provide jobs that last. As soon as a Government stops paying the full wage, employers would have no incentive to keep someone on.
"The Youth Contract provides a helping hand with real, private sector jobs and gives young people the skill needed for a lifetime of work through placements, apprenticeships and other additional support.
"Labour still can't be trusted with the economy and now they can't be trusted with helping young people into work either."
In his speech to the party's Spring Conference last weekend, Nick Clegg said the party, and the nation, must pull together. "We must pull together as one nation, a liberal nation - because that is the spirit of Britain.
"Our biggest challenge is to rescue our economy. We need a new economy that serves not one square mile, but one nation. Not creative accounting, but creative industries. Not the City, but all our cities."
On jobs, he said: "Our Regional Growth Fund is investing £2.4bn, creating more than 300,000 jobs in the areas that need them most. And we will bring sanity and responsibility to our banking sector. That's why we've put up the bank levy and why we are protecting high street banks from risky investments.
They were joined by the Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, Willie Rennie and Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, Kirsty Williams.
In letters to the Chancellor, Liberal Democrats urged the Chancellor to move further and faster on raising the Income Tax threshold so ordinary working people do not pay income tax on the first £10,000 they earn. This will ensure more than 2.5m people will be lifted out of paying tax all together and give millions £60 back in their pockets each month, compared to under Labour.
"Yet again, Labour fails to take responsibility for the mess it left the nation's finances in.
"The Coalition's emergency budget cut the amount you can get pension tax relief on by over £200,000. If Ed Balls thinks £200,000 cut is a tax break, he should borrow Alan Johnson's economics primer.
"The Liberal Democrats are lobbying hard for the budget to go further and faster in raising the income tax threshold. This will give hard-working people up and down the country a well deserved tax cut. That's £60 each month back in the wages of workers, paid for by taxing the wealthy."
Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg used his speech to the Party's Spring conference in NewcastleGateshead to call for the forthcoming budget to be a "budget for fairness" and pledged that it would help working familes.
The Deputy Prime Minister pledged that by 2015 Britain would have seen an end to control orders, the first gay marriages and the first elections to the House of Lords.
Conference also called for the Coalition Government to do more, including:
Going further to protect the right to free speech
Restoring the right to protest
Restoring individual freedom through changes to stop and search legislation, a reduction in the use of civil orders such as ASBOs for criminal activity and a ban on mosquito devices
More trusted - listening to local people and making policing much more responsive to communities' priorities.
More professional - setting up the new police professional body with a key responsibility to recommend detailed national minimum recruitment standards for the police.
More effective - making evidence based policing the defining feature of 21st century policing by establishing the world's first Institute for Policing Excellence.
